Into The Flames
by Nataly Ravenlock
Summary: {Sequel to Second Chances} Fate has a way of giving people what they want, but not without consequences, as Severus Snape is soon to find out. With Voldemort causing more trouble than usual, things might not work out how they were originally planned.
1. Difficulties With Life In General

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern who are parts of my twisted imagination.}

Just a warning, this is a sequel to another story I wrote, entitled Second Chances.  I suggest that you read that one first to understand any of this one.  Or if you really feel like confusing yourself, you can right ahead and read Into The Flames which will make much less sense than it should.

Jess, this is for you, just because of the conversation that dealt with the Crocodile Hunter and the bayous of Georgia, which got me started on this.

**Chapter 1**

**Difficulties With Life In General**

_**A rolling stone gathers no moss, but leaves a trail of busted stuff.  "Busted Stuff"  Dave Matthews Band**_

Sirius reread the parchment for the eighth time that morning.  It still refused to make any sense whatsoever.  There were too many 'therefore's and 'if then's for his liking.  The Ministry could have at least considered that a normal person would be reading it, not a sub-human dictionary encyclopedia.  On top of that, the entire gods' forsaken document was one hundred and fifty seven pages long of cramped handwriting.  Who ever had written it had way too much free time on their hands for their own good.  Of course, they had said that it would be a simple assignment, but no, he didn't think so.  What ever they wanted to force him to do, it involved reading an instruction manual first.  The damn thing was giving him a tension headache.  He chucked it across the room into a corner pile.  His eyes closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose to attempt in relieving the pressure.

A light touch of someone's hands was felt on his shoulder.  He ignored it, not really caring about who ever it was.  The hands slid down to his chest, holding there.  He felt the warm breath of the person by his left ear as her head settled on his shoulder.  He cracked open one eye, glancing at the hands wrapped around him.  They were hands he knew very well.  Who they belonged to was obvious enough for him.  Honestly, he was thrilled to have her back.  After three months without her, that was all he wanted, to have her with him again.  "Hello, Andy.  What brings you to my humble abode?"

Andy gave no reply, content with using his shoulder as a pillow.

"Earth to Andy, are you still there?"

"Maybe," her voice tickled his ear.

"Then what do you want, woman?"

"You."

"Which succubus are you and what the hell did you do with Andy?"

"It's only me.  Don't worry; I couldn't get Remus to summon up a demon."

"So you came here just to tell me that you wanted me?" Sirius teased her.

"Be quiet, you pervert."

"Now that's the Andy I know."

"I told you to be quiet," she unwound her arms from his neck, moving around the chair to perch on the arm next to him.  "You look frustrated."

"First you play prostitute and now you play psychiatrist?"

She raised her open palm, hitting him lightly on the cheek.  Her balance had been precarious and was lost easily as she stretched out her hand.  She slid ungracefully into his lap.  Sirius, by instinct and haunting memories, wrapped his arms around her.  "That was uncalled for, woman."

"Was it now?  You call me a street corner whore again and I'll hit you harder than you've ever been smacked before."

Sirius gazed into her dark, inky black eyes.  They reminded him of the shade of the midnight sky between the stars and moon.  He kissed her softly on the lips, silencing any more comments.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Remus had walked in after noticing the door was ajar.

"Not really," Andy answered trying not to sound embarrassed.  It could have been someone else finding them this way.

"Good."  He settled himself in a chair across from the other two, not minding that Andy was using Sirius as her own chair.  "Have you read it yet?"

"I've gotten to page four."

"It's only six pages."

"It is?"

"What are you talking about?" Andy asked curiously, not enjoying being left out from any conversation.

"This," Remus gestured to the large stack of parchment on his lap.

"What is it?"

"The Ministry has decided that Sirius and I are going to go on some secret expedition that this thing is supposed to explain."

"Oh.  Can I see it?"

"I don't see why not." He tossed her the pile.  Andy flipped through the pages stopping on a couple to read bits and pieces.

"So how is it only six pages?  I counted on hundred and fifty seven!" Sirius complained.

"Did you check the language that the pages were written in?"

"No."

"Then that would be your problem.  It's written in twenty three different languages."

"No shit!" Andy injected.  "The English is the most confusing to get through, though.  I looked over the Spanish.  It was a bit more self explanatory, but not by much.  Some of the others made no sense at all."

"Would you kindly explain what exactly we are supposed to be doing?"

"Not yet," she sounded hesitant.  "I want to cross reference a few things in the library first.  You don't mind if I borrow this, do you?"

"Not at all."

Andy squirmed off Sirius's lap and raced out the door, parchments firmly gripped in her hands.

"I have never in my life been able to understand her," Sirius glanced out the door when she had vacated the room.

"I don't think you ever will."

Andy rushed down the library, intent on finding answers to the questions left by what she had read.  Some of it made perfect sense to her, but other parts were hopeless.  Yet more of it was connected together in ways that she hoped were not true, even though she knew they could not be disproved.  Deep inside she wanted them to be wrong.  She threw the pile of parchments onto a deserted table.  The only other person in the library at the moment was Hermione Granger, but the girl nearly lived in the library, so it would not be a problem.

The books on Dark Arts were in their own special part of the Restricted Section.  Andy pulled out a couple that she might find useful to her thoughts.  She returned to her claimed table, quickly turning pages in search of the information.  There were small segments here and there, but it all pointed to the same place.  "¡Madre del Dios! ¡No es la verdad!  ¡Es impossible!  ¡No podemos hacerlo!  ¡Voy a matar la persona que pensó esta idea!"  She contented herself with muttering against the complete truth written in the books.

The tomes had given her only one conclusion: Azkaban.  That was exactly what she did not want to happen.  They had tried so hard to sever any ties with the cursed place.  She was going to have the head of who ever started the assignment.  "Te mato, bastardo."

"Now what are you threatening me with, McGee?"

"I'm not threatening you, just someone else.  What do you want, Sev?"

"Honestly, I want a nice house far away from people where no one can bother me and I can live in peace, but that's not going to happen any time soon, so I'll have to settle for getting you to speak in English."

"I was lapsing into Spanish again, wasn't I?"

"Yes, you were.  I suggest you be careful.  There are students around who may pick up more than you think."

"Fine, how much of it did you understand?"

"You called someone a bastard."

"I know.  That's it?"

Snape nodded imperceptibly.  Spanish never was a language he had studied in the past.  "I did not catch the beginning of what you said."

"Now if that's how much you understand, and we'd hope you were a bit smarter than the average bear, how much will a teenager, who probably does not have the education in languages and other things that you do, understand?"

"Point taken.  What were you saying?"

"Um," she paused, thinking back for a moment as to what had been said.  "Basically, I was telling the book that is can't be the truth, it's impossible, we can't do it, and that I am going to kill whoever thought up the idea, and then I threatened to kill him again."

"Very original, McGee.  I commend you on your high level of thought."

"I've had a bad morning.  Don't tempt me to smack you."

"Am I tempting you?"

"Shut up, now.  I am not in the mood for any of your sadistic sarcasm."

He looked down at her, not wanting to be smacked, but curious as to what had put her in such a foul mood.  "What did Black do this time?"  The Slytherin pulled up a chair next to her.

"He didn't do anything.  It's this that's the problem."  She gestured to the pile with her quill.

"Ministry orders?"

Andy did not want to know how he knew what they were.  "Yes."

"They aren't yours, are they?"

"No, they're for Sirius and Remus."

"You're pissed because the Ministry's stealing your precious boyfriend," he deducted coolly.

"Sev, we aren't even back together yet, so for once, you're wrong.  The Ministry wants them to do something involving Azkaban."  She shuddered at the thought.

His natural scowl changed into a plotting look.  Any thing that would be torture to his enemy was wonderful with him, even if it involved going back to a high security prison.  "Oh really?"

"Yes, really.  I'm getting to why, but they haven't explained everything in here, so it's useless and I don't know why I am telling you any of this.  I don't think I'm even supposed to have this."

"Going back to being an illegal Gryffindor again?"

"No.  Remus let me have it.  I asked permission first."

"Impressive.  You've learned something for once."

"I learn many things, thank you very much, and one of them happens to be that you are getting on my nerves."

"And that was without trying to do so."

"Go to hell, Sev."

"I've been close to there, but never actually went.  I don't think another near death experience is necessary."

"But they make life much more interesting."

"I prefer my life less interesting than attempting to get killed once a month."

"I never would have realized."

"Then again, you've had your share, so who am I to talk?"

"I like living on the edge."

"Yet which edge is it?"

"One where I know I can keep my balance without falling."

"And what balance would that be, the one of your mental sanity?"

"Probably."

"I suggest you give it up.  It's a lost cause to keep hanging on."  Snape realized he probably went too far.  There were too many ways that she could have take the last sentence that would result in him being painfully beaten.

Andy's temper snapped.  The concept of having to revisit a place that had almost killed both her and Sirius broke her down completely.  Snape's comments did nothing to help sooth her anger and resentment.  She slapped him across the face, grabbed the parchment packet, and stormed out of the library, leaving Snape with a red mark growing on his cheek.

Hermione listened to the exchange with interest as she copied down a passage from an old Arithmancy textbook.  She had never expected Professor Snape to be almost civil to someone, though the conversation, if that's what it could be called, was not the most civil to begin with.  He had gotten slapped in the end by a female Gryffindor.  That was priceless.  It was a sight most of the school would have paid to see.  Ron and Harry would be inanely jealous.  Oh, well.  That was they got for not wanting to study.  They missed all the fun.

Andy tried to calm her self down.  Snape had not helped at all.  Why didn't he understand?  He didn't comprehend how bad Azkaban really was.  It was at least fifty times worse than any descriptions people had of it.  Both she and Sirius had lived through it.  She could bet that he still had nightmares from the place.  She knew she did.  Unfortunately, it wasn't something to ask.  It took her a moment to realize where she was.  The gargoyle crouching nearby was the entrance to Dumbledore's office.  Maybe he would know what to do with this situation.  "Blood Pops," the gargoyle sprang aside, allowing her passage.  She knocked at the Head Master's door.

"Come in."

Andy entered, still clutching the large pile of papers and not in a very cheerful mood.  "What the hell is the meaning of this, sir?"  She tossed it onto his desk.

Dumbledore smiled.  Andromeda McGee never failed to amuse him.  She never forgot any of her manners even when she was obviously upset over something.  "These are Remus's, are they not?"

"Yes, they are," he voice still sounded taut.

"Then what is your problem with them?"

"This," she flipped to the English section.  "The partaking parties would be required to travel to the wizard prison of Azkaban under direct orders from the Minister of Magic in order to complete the task of locating the above named item."

"That would be a problem.  I apologize.  I was unable to read them before they were given out.  Does either of them know about this yet?"

"I'm not sure.  Sirius said he only got to page four out of six and this is on the last page.  I don't know about Remus.  It doesn't pertain to him as much, but Sirius is going to give someone hell when he learns about it."

"I understand.  The warning will be appreciated."

"I'm not done yet, sir.  What they're proposing to do here is fool-hardy, dangerous, and just plain idiotic.  It would be simpler to send a bunch of Aurors to find it."

"The Aurors are busy with the war against Voldemort.  After what happened here, they cannot spare anymore people to go on this treasure hunt."

"Then why Sirius and Remus?  There have got to be others."

"There are none as qualified as they are.  Sirius was an Auror and Remus knows more about Dark Arts than most other people who would have been elected into this.  They also work well together, which is a plus."

"But the whole Azkaban thing screws it all up!  Sirius is not going to willing set foot back inside there without having been strapped in a straight jacket and bodily dragged."

"That may a pose a problem, but we can't solve that until he knows what he has to do."

"So there's nothing you can do to knock some sense into the Ministry?"

"I have attempted to do so many times, Andromeda, and it has yet to work."

"Thank you, sir," she picked up the tome and left the room to break the news to Sirius.  She did not expect him to take it very well.

Andy arrived back to the dungeons to find that neither Remus nor Sirius had left the room.  She deposited the packet of parchment on Remus's lap and took a seat in an empty chair.

"What'd you find?" Sirius asked curiously, still wanting to know what had made her run off to the library in search of an answer.

"You don't want to know."

"We have to know."

"Then I suggest you open the book to page six and read the second sentence of the third paragraph."  She waited a few moments to give them a chance to do so.

Sirius paled noticeably.  "That can't be right."

"It is.  I just asked Dumbledore."

"He knew about it?" Remus spoke up.  He hadn't had the experience of staying in the prison, but he had been forced to visit it on numerous accounts during his time with the Ministry and knew the basic feeling associated with it.

"No," she shook her head negative.  "He hadn't read the assignment yet."

"He can't do this to me."

"That's exactly what I told him.  He said he'd try to talk the Ministry out of it, but there is not much of a chance."

"They don't know how it feels to be there day after day, with every happy thought sucked out of your existence and nightmares haunting you every single hour of every single day for the rest of your pathetic life.  They don't understand what it's like, Andy."

"I know what its like."

"You understand; you've been there.  They don't."

"Sirius, I know.  I've already been up to Dumbledore to explain it."

Sirius closed his eyes to clear the visions from his head.  _They had shackled his arms together with Muggle like handcuffs enforced with magic.  Two Aurors had dragged him down the dark, dreary halls.  He could see the other prisoners there, their haunting eyes echoing sadness and despair.  There was no hope in this place, only pain and suffering.  He had no chance of getting away from this gods' forsaken hole.  He would live the rest of his miserable life there and die only a name in the history books with no one to mourn for his parting.  People would probably celebrate his passing.  No more Sirius Black, no more mass murderer that killed innocent people, no more traitor that betrayed his own friends, no more…  He shook his head, clearing the thought.  No, they could not do that to him, not again.   He refused to go back there.  He never wanted to set foot with in twenty miles of that place.  "I can't do this."_

Remus had been studying the context around the passage.  "We aren't necessarily going into the prison part, just the administrative.  It shouldn't be as bad."

"Yes it will.  Anywhere near the island is bad.  It's worse than the most horrible thing you can imagine and then multiply that by about twenty thousand and that's Azkaban.  It doesn't matter what part of it you go to, it's still Azkaban."

"We do have until July to get this cleared up."

"Great.  It's almost June now.  We have about a month to convince the Ministry that this damn thing is a terrible idea.  Like that'll ever happen."

"There is a chance someplace that the Ministry will listen."

"It's not bloody damn likely that they will."

"No, but it is a chance."

Sirius closed his eyes once more, praying for a chance out of this forsaken situation.  It would be a cold day in hell before he would return voluntarily to Azkaban.  

{Author's Note:  And that's the first chapter for Into the Flames.   I know I enjoy torturing my characters too much.  I have a basic plot out line in my head write now.  I refuse to write it down.  I tried to do that once.  It failed miserably when I lost the piece of paper I wrote it on.  Real helpful, wasn't it?  But this may have a plot yet!  Just ignore my Spanish.  I think its right and Jess can probably vouch for me if it isn't.  I'll explain that part eventually.  I think there will be a lot more flash backs in this one that will bring a bit light onto some people's pasts.

Lily Potter:  Thanks!  I like thesauruses.  They're fun.

Anna Black:  I know the exact feeling.  Marching Band tends to do that to a person.  We got fourth out of six bands a few weekends ago.  Right now, we're horrible, but by Dome day, we'll rock.  It could have been either.  I was not going for a gender specific term as to a medical wizard/witch.  I liked Andy personally.  She definitely qualifies as a dynamic character.  Yes, I plan to let people know when this fic comes out, as obviously I have done so.  You shall see what happens to Sirius and Remus in later chapters.  That's one of the few things I have planned out, though I don't know how I'll get there.

VMorticia:  No problem.  I love writing fight scenes.  If I could, I would do a fic just made out of fight scenes and sarcastic comments.  Wait sec…I just did, didn't I?  Never mind, I had too much sugar today.  That fic sucked, (HP and the Beasts of the Shadow)  I wrote it in a month.  It was my first fic and it was terrible in my opinion.  It's not as bad as Chaos.  Now that's a horrible fic.  I won't go off on a random tangent about how bad it is again, though it has a really cool bo staff/ sword fight in chapter 8, but that's it.

Sora G. Silverwind:  Thanks you!  ::blushes:: I'm surprised.  Andy is honestly the first 3-D character I've written, so I'm glad of what you say.  Into The Flames will be hopefully just as interesting, though less 'let's see how many times I can kill each character.'  I think I do attempt to try to kill a few of them at some points as far as I've thought out.  Maybe…That's exactly why I hate that story (Chaos), it really irks me.

Atheis Gainsborough:  Of course I'm doing a sequel!  How else can I live in my own little world again?  And threaten world domination with cheese puffs?  {Inside joke, ignore it}

WealseyTwinsLover1112:  Quite alright, at least you reviewed!

Shasa Perino:  That's fine.  I had ice cream around 9:30 in the morning in a social studies class earlier today, so I was hyper for a while.  It's not too happy of an ending.  I did not kill off the main character this time.  So there!  Here's the sequel.  I still love fight scenes.  There will be some in the sequel, hopefully.

Peace, Love, and Straight Jackets, Nataly Ravenlock}


	2. Calm Before The Storm

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern who are parts of my twisted imagination.}

**Chapter 2**

**Calm Before the Storm**

_**When you're down and troubled/ And you need some loving care/ And nothing, nothing is going right/ Close your eyes and think of me/ And soon I will be there/ To brighten up even your darkest nights  "You've Got A Friend" Carole King**_

Exams finished quickly, though all professors agreed that they were a living hell to grade.  Andy sat at her desk, hunched over the final essay that was there.  It was simple enough.  All she had the students do was brew a potion of her choosing from memory and then write an essay about the uses of the potion.  She gave the last paper an eight out of ten, marked it in her grade book, and set it on top of the pile.  Placing her feet on the cleared desk top, she leaned back, closing her eyes.  She was free at last!  It was a sigh of relief.  There were a few months of freedom before she would be back here teaching once more.  Not that she minded it, mind you.  She was actually very thankful that Dumbledore had agreed to let her stay on the Hogwarts staff.  She was not certain about the reactions of the rest of the professors, especially McGonagall, but she knew she was thrilled.  At least Sev was there with her.  Having someone, even though it wasn't Sirius or Remus, would make life more bearable. 

"Hey, Andy, are you done yet?"

Her eyes flashed open, seeing Sirius's head in the doorway.  "I just finished, why do you ask?"

He entered, glad she wasn't snapping at him any more.  They weren't on the best terms yet, but it was getting better than Arctic cold.  "I was wondering if you had any plans for the summer."

"Let me see," she thought for a moment, the question coming unexpected.  "There's a potion convention at the end of August and I wanted to go visit Ben sometime, but that's about it."

"Remus and I were planning on going up to his cabin with Harry.  I was wondering if you wanted to join us."

Andy grinned.  "You want me to spend how long in a cabin with three males?"

"Only a few weeks.  After July, we have to…" he didn't want to say it.  "You know."

"You just want me to cook and clean for you, don't you?"

Sirius looked shocked as if he had never thought of the idea though it had run through his head briefly.  "Of course not!  We aren't that dense!"

"Are you sure?"

"Andy, I'm offended you would have thought that."

"That's encouraging."

"So do you want to go?"

"Maybe.  Is anyone else coming?"  She had a feeling that Sirius was not telling her everything.

"Harry wants to bring along Ron and Hermione.  We're getting Ginny as well.  Arthur and Molly want to take a holiday without the kids."

"That's seven people."

"I know.  You don't mind, do you?  Molly was afraid that the girls weren't going to have another female figure and would be tormented by us males."

Andy stood up, slowly removing her feet from the desk top.  She sauntered up to him until her face was only inches away looking up to his.  "Is that all I am to you, Sirius Black: another female figure in your life?"  Her voice dropped lower and deadly.

"No.  There can never be another one of you.  One is enough as it is."

Her eyes softened into dark pools of laughter.  "Good.  So when are we leaving?"

"As soon as school's out.  We have a day to fix up the place.  Harry's with the Weasleys until then."

"One day, eh?  We can do it."

Hogwarts was out for the summer, none worse for the wear.  Harry had already been sent to the Weasleys when Sirius and Remus brought Andy to the small lakeside cabin.

"What the hell is this place?" her voice held a mix of awe and confusion.  The cabin was shabby, like its owner, but held a sense of familiar homeliness.  All around were tall pines, oaks, maples, poplars, hemlocks, and any other forest plants that could be thought of.  Through a gap in the thick green branches cut a path to a clear crystal lake.

"Home," Remus answered simply, not offended by her comment.  "It's about as far from civilization that a person can get and still be civil."

She nodded as Sirius opened the door, leading them in.  The inside was worn around the edges, obviously lived in and still functioning.  Faded red checkered curtains hung from a few of the windows.  The floor was completely hard wood with only a few deep maroon throw rugs spontaneously placed.  A stone fireplace sat unlit between a mismatched pair of a sofa and loveseat with various chairs in the corners around them.  Remus and Sirius disappeared for a moment to drop their bags off into separate rooms.

A flash of memory exploded in her mind, giving her an idea.  "Hey, Remus," she called out to what ever corner he ended up in.  "Can I have the basement again?"

"Go right a head, Andy," his voice drifted down from an upstairs room.

Andy took a moment to figure out where the basement door had been, only realizing that she had lived down there before, but not knowing where exactly it was.  After finding a pantry cupboard and a linen closet, she located the basement door.

The anti-dust spells hadn't worn off in the sixteen long years she had been away.  A four post bed covered with a worn comforter sat morosely in the far corner.  Next to it was an old functional desk that refused to neither match the bed nor the armoire, which did not match the bed either..  She reminded herself to talk to Remus about his decorating skills.  The man was a bachelor and he probably didn't spend enough time there to have anything important at the house.  It didn't need to match, like it's owner.  The werewolf was know for being eclectic.  If it worked, it was fine for him.  Color, pattern, shape, and size did not matter, except for the dining room table.  That was another story.  She laid her bags on top of the bed.  They would be unpacked later.

A small door on the opposite wall caught her eye.  She laid her palm on it, feeling the smooth dark wood.  There were obvious charms on it.  The knob was tried, and found to be strangely unlocked.  Andy pushed open the door unable to recall what was beyond it.  Two long tables had been shoved end to end against a wall.  Another desk, less ornate than the first was positioned in the corner.  Under the tables were an array of boxes, cauldrons, bags, and satchels.  She closed her eyes feeling the déjà vu of having been there before.

_A younger Andy stood over a steaming cauldron and poured a vial of thick blue liquid into the mixture.  She stirred it exactly three time counterclockwise followed by seven time clockwise.  It swirled a psychedelic tie-dye before settling to an orangey purple.  She stared at it for a moment, hoping it would change to something else.  It was most definitely not supposed to be that shade.  It was honestly supposed to be green.  She shrugged and poured a bit of the solution into three vials.  They would be tested later to see what she had created.  The rest was disposed of._

_"Hey, Andy, are you still down there?"_

_"Of course," she yelled back.  "Where else would I be?"_

_The pattering of footsteps could be heard from the other room as he came down the stairs.  A few moments later, a Remus who had yet to go gray strolled into the back room.  "Did you find anything yet?" he attempted not to sound too frustrated with her._

_"Nah," Andy held up the bottle.  "I don't know what it is.  I have to run a few tests yet, but it's definitely not the Merlin's Potion."_

_"So are you free for the afternoon?"_

_"Yeah, just let me get cleaned up.  Where are we going?"_

_The werewolf shrugged.  "Probably into town, then maybe stop at the diner to get a bite to eat or something."_

_"Alright."___

Yes, she had been there before.  Remus had allowed her to live with him after they had graduated, since Sirius lived in the dorms at the Auror college and she didn't have a job yet.  He hadn't minded letting her stay there as long as she cleaned up any disasters she created.  The house had been his father's, but after the man had died had been passed to him.  

On a whim, she pulled out a drawer from the desk.  It slid out smoothly, reveling a contents of a pile of papers.  She took a few of them out, reading over the notes.  They had been hers, she was certain of that much.  It was her handwriting.  Somehow they had stayed here for all the years she had been in Azkaban.  Obviously Remus hadn't known of them or maybe had merely forgotten.  She ruffled through the papers, finding brief notes of how to brew various things, including some that she had invented herself.  Andy felt a tear drip down her cheek.  These were the first things that had been truly been hers.  They were the only link she had to how she had been before the entire ordeal had occurred.  It was a part of her.

"What's wrong?"

Andy's head snapped up with a start.  She had been so absorbed in what she had found, she had not heard anyone coming.  "Nothing."

Sirius wiped the droplet off her cheek.  "There has to be something."

"Look at these," she passed him the leaflets.  "They were mine."

He recognized her writing, but not the topics she was attempting to explain.  "Yes, they most certainly are."

"The whole desk was mine.  This was mine, Sirius!  All of it was mine!"

He looked confused, not completely understanding what her problem was.  "Yes."

"I finally have a part of my past I can look back to and say 'hey! That was me!  I did that!'  I never had anything like that before."

The man chuckled at her exuberance.  She reminded him of a young child at Christmas who had gotten what she had pined for all year.  "Alright.  Could you at least take a few minutes to come up to the land of the living?  Remus wants to know what you want to do about the kids."

"Yeah, sure," she set the papers on the cleared desk top, intent on reading every word later, and followed him back up stairs.

"I thought the dust bunnies had gotten you," Remus was at the kitchen table jotting down a few notes on what needed to be done in the next few days.

"Not yet.  The anti-dust spells are still working down there."

"Good.  I suppose you found everything?"

"Yeah.  That was my lab, wasn't it?"

"It was definitely yours.  I forget how many times I was woken up over that summer to an explosion at two in the morning."

Andy grinned.  That probably would have happened with her luck.  "It made a good alarm clock."  She turned more serious.  "So what needs to get done?"

The werewolf glanced at his list.  "We need food and we need to set up the two other rooms for our charges.  I figure that the girls share one and Harry and Ron get the other."

"That should work.  Do you want me to get the linens out?" Andy asked, knowing she would have to volunteer eventually.

"Andy, can you actually make a bed correctly?"

"Maybe."

"That'll have to do for now.  Go right a head.  There should be two beds in each room as it is.  They were left from storage."

Andy left to locate the linen cupboard, which was not too complicated given that she had found it accidentally before.

"Which leaves us to get food."

"Is your fireplace hooked up to the Floo network?"

"It better be after all the times the Ministry called me on it."

"Can't we just Floo in what we need?"

"Probably."

"Good.  Now that that's solved, what's next?"

Remus shrugged.  "I think that'll do for now."

They heard Andy swear at something, probably her cat.  A large series of thuds resounded through the rickety house as the pile of comforters and quilts rolled down the stairs.

He continued with a slight pause, "Except Andy might require some assistance."

She did not want the help, but took it with a grain of salt.  It did make things so much easier though she was perfectly capable of doing it by herself.  Wyvern did not help at all.  The damn cat had entwined itself between her legs, tripping her.  On top of that, the cursed feline had decided that the beds were hers and everyone should make them around her.

Eventually Andy gave up with the task, having finished what she could.  She wandered outside.  After having seen a glimpse of the lake through the tall pines, she had wanted a closer look as to what was there.  It had been so long since she had been there last.  Not much had changed.  The dock was still held together magically, its planks worn with the hard use from summers gone far away.  She stepped out to the end, leaning against one of the poles that supported it.  It was so peaceful here.  She had missed the peace and quiet of solitude.  Azkaban hadn't been silent.  The prisoners had screamed their death-throws in every hour.  Hogwarts had been filled with hormonal teenagers.  Gods know that place was anything but quiet.  Here, there were only the sounds of the wind and waves.  She closed her eyes, letting the peacefulness flow around her.

Sirius watched her stand quietly on the dock's edge.  He still wanted to hold her, to have her say that she was 'his' again.  She was reluctant to do anything.  He knew that she still hurt, but at least they were on speaking terms.  She had let him kiss her only once, when she was feeling playful.  It had been wonderful to hold her in his arms, if only for a few minutes.  Stiffening his resolve that she would not reject him this time, he walked up behind her and placed his arm around her shoulders.  She let it stay there, knowing he wouldn't try anything else.

"I've missed you, Andy," he whispered softly.

She looked up at him, her dark eyes still haunted with Azkaban and the pain he had caused her.  "I know."

"You're an extremely frustrating person."

Andy smiled mischievously.  "Of course I am, what else could I be?  Come on, could you actually see me as subservient or meek or obedient?"

"No, I don't think I could, though the picture you just gave me was wonderful."

"Why?"

"Never mind," he didn't want to admit to the image of a meek Andy.

"Tell me.  I won't hit you for it."

"I could picture you worshipping me at my feet, wanting to complaisantly perform my every bidding."

She contemplated the idea for a moment and shoved him off the dock.  "No, I don't think so."

Black surfaced, pulling himself back on the dock.  "That was uncalled for."  He gathered her in his arms and flung her into the water that he came from.

Andy looked out to the shore, seeing Remus laughing at them.  She swam strongly to the beach, wrapping her arms around the dry werewolf.  "That's what you get for laughing at me."  He patted her lightly on the back, still chuckling.

"Andy, you've got the wrong man," Sirius shouted as he jogged down the dock to the other two.

She let go, having satisfactorily soaked him.  "No, I don't.  He was dry.  You're sopping wet."

"Well, so are you."

"Captain Obvious strikes again."

"But aren't you supposed to be my girlfriend?"

"No, I've decided to have a torrid affair with your best friend first.  Right, Moony?"

Remus could tell she was joking by the look in her eyes.  "Sure, Andy, sounds like fun."

"But…but…" Sirius sputtered.  "You can't do that!"

"I just did."  She placed her arm around his waist.  "Come on, Moony, let's go back inside.  It's rather nippy out here"

They left Sirius standing there alone like a soggy fish out of water.

Remus put his arm around Andy's shoulders.  "You weren't being serious, were you?"

"Not really," she admitted.  "It was just to irk him.  I thought that you wouldn't mind too much.  You don't, do you?"

"No, I don't mind.  You've done this to me before."

_Remus sat in the corner going over an Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment.   The portal slammed open and Andy stomped into the Common Rooms.  She flung herself down on a deserted couch.  He could see that she was crying, probably from Sirius, he guessed.  Feeling sorry for her, he approached the couch.  He placed a hand on her shoulder.  "Andy, what's wrong?"_

_She pulled herself sitting.  Tear streaks glistened in the light of the fire.  "Sirius is being a moron again."_

_Remus took a seat next to her, gently placing his arm around her thin shoulders.  "What did he do now?"  The relationship between Sirius and Andy was well known to be rockier than a cliff._

_"He broke up with me just go out with a second year Hufflepuff that looks like a supermodel, and has the brains of a stuffed rabbit."_

_"Oh.  He told you this?"_

_"No, of course not!" she snapped.  "I walked in on the two of them snogging.  He said that everything's off and left the library hand in hand with whatever her name is."_

_Remus winced at his friend's tactlessness.  "Ouch.  That must have been painful."_

_"You don't even know."_

_"I don't suppose I do and I probably never will." He was a sworn bachelor from day one.  There was no reason for him to inflict someone else with the pain of his lycanthropy.  It was painful enough for him to transform every full moon without having to explain everything to a girlfriend or maybe eventually a wife.  And then if they had kids, he didn't want to bestow any unborn children with the curse of being a werewolf.  No, he never would.  Women were off limits for him._

_"Aw, come on, Moony, you know you'll always have me." Andy hated to see him like this.  Remus went broody on the subject of relationships too often for his own good.  It was unhealthy for him to think such things about himself.  She placed her head on his shoulder, taking his free hand in her own._

_"I know, Andy."_

She had promised him when she had first found out about his cursed existence that she would always be there for him.  She agreed not to tell anyone else, though she did end up calling him 'Moony,' as a nickname every so often.  It had brought them closer if nothing else.  The other Gryffindors did not comprehend the pain he went through to hide everything about his curse.  Andy had figured it out within a few months.  From all the books she read, it hadn't surprised him too much, though it bothered him that she knew.  He had expected her to turn away from him, like so many others had done before, but she refused to.  She had become almost protective of him.  He supposed that she was one of the few women that he would every be close to, though Sirius had officially claimed her after awhile.  He let her go, knowing she would be happier with someone who could love her back without the fear of making her life miserable.

Every so often in the next few years at Hogwarts, she would come back to him.  Sirius had too many different girl friends to count, but he always ended up going back out with Andy.  She was loyal to him, deciding to stay with Remus every time they broke up.  It was a difficult relationship, but in the end, it worked.  Then the Fates had destroyed it and now she had decided to be his again.

Remus looked down at the tousled blonde head resting by his shoulder.  She knew that he could never have a serious relationship with anyone, yet she loved him for what he was, nothing more and nothing less.  He decided that it wouldn't last for more than a few days, though few hours was probably more applicable.  She would give up teasing Sirius after a while and they would get back together eventually.  Yes, that's exactly what would happen.  He gave them until Christmas.

{Author's Note: This is going to be a bit fluffy for a while until the action starts.  I just need to finish the beginning of the summer first in order to lead into things.  The action, of course, is rather interesting from what I have planned.  And yes, it does include a revisit to Azkaban among other things which I will not mention at this point since they are in the air at the moment, though they are almost certain to cause a good amount of conflict with the characters.  That didn't make any sense at all.  Oh, well.  Hope you enjoyed it!  

Atheis Gainsborough:  Actually, my friend had nightmares about the world being taken over by attack turtles, which we incorporated into our latest art project.  The art teacher is scared of us because we think on the exact same wave length and we'll go back and forth and we all have the same ideas.  It's hilarious!  We freak people out with it.

Sora G. Silverwind:  Thank you.  It's nice to feel loved every once in a while.  It's a much better feeling than hated and tired.  Of course I came out with a sequel!  What else would I have done?  Trust me for now, more happens between Andy and Snape.  I'm not sure if that's the more that you're thinking of, but it will be something more.  Yeah, Snape usually gets pissed at me for trying to kill him, but Andy could care less.  She's the kind of person that enjoys risking her life for the hell of it.  I'm trying to write.  I'm also balancing Marching Band, Karate, and a Drama Production plus school, so I write when I have time.  I have up to Chapter 4 finished.

Angelkas:  Actually, I honestly just read your review for Chaos.  I meant to get back to you, but the computer shut me off before I did.  I believe I did warn everyone that I'm just a tad bit sarcastic.  Probably more than a tad bit.  Oh, well.  Close enough for government work.  If you noticed Snape not only gets slapped, but beaten up a few times in Second Chances by Andy as well.  Fortunately for you, I can do both sarcasm and fight scenes.

Ignominia:  Master of Sarcasm?  Hmmm…I'll have to add that to my other titles, along with Sensei Pit bull and You Stupid Idiot.  Ignore me, I'm tired.

Dy:  I plan to, but that would require me to have time to update.

Peace, Love, and Ice Cream, Nataly Ravenlock}


	3. The Basement

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern and my twisted, yet original, plotline.}

**Chapter 3**

**The Basement**

_**"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor early.  He arrives precisely when he means to."  Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Rings**_

****

Sirius paced back and forth across the living, pausing every few seconds to glance at the worn watch** he had found in the top drawer of the dresser in his room.  "They're late.  It's already 11:36."  He muttered to no one in particular.**

"They are not late.  We never told them a set time to be here.  Sit down before you wear a hole in my floor," Remus didn't bother looking up from the _Daily Prophet that he had been reading; Padfoot had been going on like this since before nine o'clock._

The flames in the fireplace flickered to a blazing green.  A few seconds later, Harry Potter popped up, looking slightly disheveled.

"Good morning, Harry," Sirius turned calm.  "You're right on time."  He clapped his godson on the shoulder.

Ron came next, followed by Hermione, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley.

"Well, isn't this nice," Molly Weasley commented politely as she looked around the tidy room.  

"Hello, Molly," Remus laid down his paper and stood up to welcome her.

A loud crash reverberated from the kitchen followed by a pent up low scream.  "Wyvern!  You twink!"  A black and orange blur shot out into the living room, colliding with Ginny's leg.  The girl scooped the cat into her arms, stroking the creature's soft head.

Andy stepped out of the kitchen, wooden spoon in hand.  "That cat is going to be the death of me."  She noticed that everyone else had arrived.  "Oh, I'm sorry.  The cursed cat just got into the pots and pans cupboard."  She smiled warmly, breaking any tension that had been in the room.

Mrs. Weasley immediately took a liking to her.  Whether it was the spunky aura she gave off or the fact the she was dressed in an apron and brandishing a wooden spoon, Molly could not be sure.  "You're the new Potions Mistress?"

"Yes, Andromeda McGee at your service, ma'am," Andy inclined her head.  "Hello all.  I do have lunch together in the kitchen if you would like it."

The group was herded into the large kitchen.  An odd assortment of enough chairs to seat everyone surrounded the table.

"Oh, no, I'm afraid I can't stay.  Bill said he was going to stop by this afternoon," Molly fluttered.  She hugged all four children tightly before Flooing back to the Burrow.

"I guess it's just us chickens," Sirius decided before helping himself to a sandwich.  Andy swatted him with her spoon.

"Kids first.  There's turkey, ham, tuna, and peanut butter raisin sandwiches, macaroni salad, fresh vegetables, and peanut butter-butterscotch-oatmeal cookies for desert."  A timer began to beep.  "Oh, shoot!  I'll be back," she grabbed a random sandwich and raced down the basement stairs.

Andy didn't realize how quickly time had passed after she had run down to the basement.  She had begun to experiment with the recipes that had been found in a multitude of drawers.  Some of them were hilarious and made her wonder what exactly she had been thinking when she had figured them out.  Who would want a specific potion that would only dye people's toes a shade of electric purple?  Wow…That was one of the more pathetic ones.  The notes themselves, on the other hand , were just as horrible.  There were parts in English, parts in Spanish, and most of it in a crude mix of Spanglish.  She wanted to know how she had written them in the first place.  Ignoring the rumbling in her stomach, she poured the next ingredient into the potion.

Upstairs, Ginny Weasley sat alone.  That was how it always was.  Bill and Charlie were too many years above her to be close.  Percy was, well, he was Percy.  That explained everything.  He had his studies on cauldron bottoms and such stuff now.  Fred and George were always off exploding things.  Ron was being himself, playing chess against Professor Lupin.  Remus, she corrected herself, his name was Remus.  Both men had told them to call them by their first names, not liking the formality of 'Professor' or 'Mister.'.  Her brothers always left her out of everything just because she was a girl.  It didn't matter that Ron was the only brother with her, but still, she felt left out.  Harry and Sirius Black was engrossed in the chess match, attempting to give Remus the help he did not need.  The man had already beat Ron once.  Hermione curled herself up in a comfy armchair with a large tome, probably about some obscure topic that would never be used in life.  Ginny was still alone despite the company of the other people.  She wished she had brought her books with her.  There were things she could be doing with them, such as homework or just reading.  She supposed she could ask.

The youngest Weasley spoke up.  "Do you have any books I could read?"

"Check the basement, two doors down on the left.  There should be some there," Remus answered absently, not paying any attention to the girl.

Ginny followed his direction and found herself in a dimly lit room.  She could see the outlines of furniture, but not much else.  From another room, light puddle out onto the floor.

"Goddamn piece of crap!" another voice cursed from the adjoining room.  "What the hell is this?  You aren't supposed to do that!"  A cauldron clattered out of the room, landing in a crash by Ginny's feet.  Andy appeared a few moments later, kicking the misbehaving pot back into the room.  She looked up from where she had booted the miscreant cooking equipment, noticing Ginny standing there.  "What do you need, Virginia?"

Ginny licked her lips nervously.  The Potions Mistress had always commanded a great deal of respect from everyone, much like Professor Snape, but not as evil seeming.  "Remus said that there were books down here."

"Of course there are books down here.  What are looking for?"  Andy brightened the candles in the room with a flick of her wand.  Ginny saw bookshelves around most of the room.  "The shelves over there against that wall are mainly Potions manuals.  I have no clue what's in the rest of them, but feel free to help yourself.  I think there might be some Shakespeare some place…" she trailed off, striding over to a shelf and skimming through the titles.  "Have you ever read Shakespeare?"

"Hermione let me read Romeo and Juliet once."

"Hmph!  Romance tragedy, I never cared for that one, thought Macbeth was excellent, but that was just because my goal in life was to be Lady Macbeth.  The comedies are pretty good.  I thought I had a few of them someplace," she turned back to the teenager.  "I don't know.  Have fun, find what you want.  If it screams or bites, just let me know.  I'll be in the other room."  Andy disappeared back into her laboratory, leaving Ginny with the bookshelves.

That was something new.  The new Potion Mistress's goal in life was to be Lady Macbeth.  Ginny didn't know if that was past or present, but it was something interesting, whoever Lady Macbeth happened to be.  She scanned some of the titles, ignoring the ones called things such as 1014 Ways to Painfully Poison Your Enemies or Healing Potions: Why We Can't Heal Everything and Everyone.  Some of those were things she did not want to know nor need to know.  She located the Shakespeare books that Andy had spoken about.  There was an entire shelf full of them, ranging from The Tempest and A Midsummer's Night's Dream to King Lear and Henry V.  She ignored them, not wanting something that intellectual at the moment.  On the next shelf were notebooks filled with the illegible, multilingual handwriting that the Professor had found in her other notes.  Those were ignored as well.  There was a brief section of a few fantasy novels that she decided she might go back to if nothing else could be found.

On a whim, she pulled out a worn binder.  She opened it, finding pictures inside.  The first picture was of a group of six, labeled 'Graduating Gryffindors, 1979.'  Underneath was a list of names: Peter, Remus, James, Lily, Andromeda, Sirius.  These must have been Harry's parents, Ginny realized, and Sirius and Remus.  Professor McGee, too, since her first name was Andromeda.  The people in the picture waved at her.  She smiled back, turning the pages.

Andy smacked her hand against the cauldron bottom in attempt to loosen the coagulated remains of what she had been trying to brew.  It was not supposed to congeal.  The recipe never said that it would solidify if it sat out too long.  She reminded herself to write a warning on the notes eventually.  It finally plopped out onto a platter.  She sighed taking it in one hand to throw away upstairs.  She noticed Ginny was still there, flipping through the pages of something.  'Good,' she thought to herself, 'at least the girl found something.'  "I'll be right back.  Please don't touch anything."

Ginny glanced up from the photo album.  She was at a picture of a snowball fight.  "Did you make pudding?" she asked curiously, seeing the plate.

The Potions Mistress's eyes lit up.  "Thank you, Virginia, that would explain a whole lot.  And I was trying to figure out what Biehensootch Pud was.  It's butterscotch pudding!  I just can't read my cursive hand writing!"  She started to laugh, shaking her head at the pudding, which had somehow come out correctly even after being kicked across the floor.  She set it on the desk, not having to worry about her creation any longer.  "So what'd you find?"

The girl paused not knowing if she was allowed to look at the pictures.  "I found a few old photo albums."

"Really?" Andy perked up again.

"Yeah, there was a whole bunch on the bottom shelf here."

"Virginia, you are amazing.  I was wondering if those had survived.  Do you mind if I look on with you?"

It struck her as odd that a teacher was asking a student's permission to do something.  "No, I've only gotten through 1979 and 1978.  I'm on 77 right now."

"That was my fifth year, then," Andy took a seat next her on the floor, peering over Ginny's shoulder.  She pointed to a picture.  "Remus wasn't too happy when I took that one.  Sirius and I had just finished perfecting an improved Dung-bomb that would turn things different colors.  He got hit was a pink one on accident, if you can't tell."

"You did things like that?  But you're a professor!"

"Virginia, just because I am legitimate now does not mean I was the same way in my youth.  In fact, I can honestly tell you that McGonagall still has grudges against the entire lot of us."

"For what?"

"Well, we had the record for the most detentions, though I think your brothers might have been very close and we lit her hat on fire on the first day that we were there."

"How'd you that?" Ginny was amazed at this.  She had always been mystified by the tales her older brother had told her about the pranks they had pulled.

"We had been trying to light Snape's hair on fire and the spell missed and hit McGonagall instead."

"Professor Snape was in your year too?"

"Of course he was.  He was our main scapegoat, along with the rest of the Slytherins.  I have a picture of him somewhere in here."  She flipped through the pages, finding what she was looking for.  "That is you ex-Potions Master."

Ginny's jaw dropped.  "That can't be him!"

"It is," Andy spoke softly.  It was a picture of her and Snape of them dancing during a Christmas Ball.  James had snapped a picture for blackmail, though in the end she had kept it.

"But he's…he's…"

"Handsome?"

Ginny nodded speechlessly.

"He used to be almost gorgeous, though you wouldn't know it from the talk from the rest of the girls.  He was too much of a loner to have many relationships.  But he was rather good looking even if he was a Slytherin."

"I thought you and Sirius had been together, at least that's what the captions said."

"We were a couple at that point.  Snape's date wanted to dance with Sirius so somehow we had switched partners, so I was with him and his date was with my boyfriend at the time.  The picture was for blackmail, but I conned James into letting me keep it.  Severus used to be able to dance really well, too."

"You're kidding, aren't you?"

"No, not at all.  He was a marvelous dancer, when you got him out of the corners."

"Wow," Ginny whispered, having a hard time imaging a younger, good-looking Professor Snape who was a good dancer.

"I probably just ruined your entire image of the man with that picture.  And you're going to think about it every time you see him, aren't you?"

"Probably.  He doesn't seem as terrifying anymore."

"He'll always be a scary person.  Just remember, inside everyone has their own little quirks.  His is just to scare the crap out of everybody.  If you want to get on his good side, all you have to do is respect him.  So, do you want to try the butterscotch pudding?"

"Sure."

From somewhere in the laboratory Andy produced two spoons.  "I can't promise how it will taste, considering I didn't even realize what I was making until after it was finished."

"Aren't you going to share it with everyone else?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't how it will taste or if it'll blow up in someone's face."

"Why would it blow up?"

"Some of the recipes for food stuffs that I found in here were for prank foods, like your brothers' Ton-Tongue Toffee."

"And you're going to try it?"

"Alright, so maybe that's not the best idea then.  Wyvern!  Come here, cat!"

Just as Ginny was going to tell her that cats don't usually obey people, Wyvern sauntered into the room purring loudly.  Andy dipped her finger into the pudding and held it out for the feline.  She sniffed at it then licked it off with a satisfied squeak.  Andy waited, crouched down next to her.  Nothing happened.  "It seems safe enough."

"You just tested it on your cat!  What if it had blown her up?"  Ginny was appalled that a cat would be used as a test animal.

"None of my potions will blow anything up unless they are labeled that they will do so.  This one wasn't, but I didn't know if it would turn someone blue or sprout feathers or something like that."

"But you tested it on your cat!"

"I know.  I used to do that to my other cat.  Saber, my old cat, didn't mind.  Then again, she was a few donuts short of a dozen and didn't seem to understand that walls were solid and not meant to be walked through.  But she did not mind and it did not  kill her.  In fact she lived for at least seven years.  I don't know what happened to her after I left."

"Are you sure it didn't hurt her?"

"It did not harm the creature in any way, shape, or form.  Any of the potions I might have tested would have changed colors or maybe shapes, but that's about it.  I would not have hurt my cat."

"Okay."

"So do you still want to try the pudding?"

"I'll try it, I guess."

Andy tossed her a spoon.

{Author's Note:  That was a shorter chapter, but I still have to do some set up work to get the plot where I want it to go.  The next chapter is guaranteed to be much more exciting, I'll promise that much.  So will the next two after that, if my imaginary plan works out the way I want it to, which it may or may not, given the circumstances that I am attempting to write.  And yes, I do have a strange obsession with Shakespeare.  The Lady Macbeth thing was an inside joke, but it seemed to fit with Andy.  One of the instructors at the acting camp that I was at said that I would be a great Lady Macbeth.  So it's one of my goals in life.  

VMorticia:  There!  Take a peek down at the bottom!  Are you happy now?  The way I do flashbacks are with italics.  All the stuff in the italics is the flashback, the stuff not in italics is present day.  I went back in the chapter and sure enough, they are italicized.

Shasa Perino:  It becomes less fluffy starting chapter four.  My point this time was to try not to kill off characters in the first chapter like I did with the last fic.  It took me until chapter four and then chapter is five is pretty dark, so the fluffiness will go away.

Dy:  Thanks!  Here's the next one!

Morgaine:  Thank you.  I have reasons for Remus not having a girl which I believe you saw in chapter 2.  He does not want to hurt anyone when they find out that he's a werewolf and feels that because of his curse, he can't connect himself with anyone.  I don't know exactly what is going to happen between Andy and Sirius though I originally have it planned to keep them together with a few problems in between.  I honestly don't like Harry.  I don't know why.  Its probably because he's a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin, but maybe not.  He just bothers me so I don't put him in much.  I have problems writing him in character.  I can write Hermione just fine, but not Harry.  I've read other fics without Harry and co., so this is not too much of a different thing.

Anna Black:  No, I did not have this chapter beta-ed.  I get Jess to read them to make sure they make sense, not for spelling errors and the like.  I'll edit them after Marching Band is over and I have a bit more time until production week of our play.  The plants probably don't grow there, but I really was not in the mood to look up those type of things.  Eventually when I have time I may correct them, but not now.  The key to this is "time" if you haven't figured it out.

Sora G. Silverwind:  I'm not too thrilled with the beginning of this story until about chapter four or so, but there were a few things that I needed to put in before I started the actual plot.  I think I may have answered your question about Remus and Andy in the next chapter.  It might explain a bit.  I don't want to say anything now because that would give away a huge chunk of chapter 4.  I'll warn you that I am not the world's best speller.  I write by phonetics when I can't figure out to spell a word.  So I have no clue if it is "death-throws" or "death-throes."  It also helps that I type these things is any rack of spare time that I have between Marching Band, karate, drama practice, and school.  That would mean barely any time, so these are not edited yet.

Ignominia:  I'm glad you have returned.  It's highly encouraging.

Hope you enjoyed it and please read and review!  Peace, Love, and Bouncing Ferrets, Nataly Ravenlock}


	4. Flaming Apothecary

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern and my twisted, yet original, plotline.}

**Chapter 4**

**Flaming Apothecary**

Remus looked at sky through a nearby window, seeing the sun near the horizon.  It was almost time.  He stood up from the rickety porch chair.  The four children were in the lake splashing around with Sirius.  That would keep them occupied for a while.  Andy was no where to be seen, which meant that she was in the basement working on something else that she dug up.  He staggered inside.  His muscles were tightening like they always did before the transformation.  The spasm passed as he stumbled down the stairs.  The Wolfsbane Potion that he had taken earlier did nothing to ease the pain.  He leaned against the wall for a moment, gritting his teeth against the incoming agony.

"Andy?" he called out, torment creeping into his voice.

He saw her dash out of her laboratory in a panic.  She placed an arm around his shoulders, guiding him to a chair.  "Sit.  You took the potion, right?"

Moony nodded weakly.  It was always like this: painful as hell.

"Alright.  You want to stay down here, I suppose?"

"I had the door plated with silver just to be safe."

"You aren't going to hurt anyone, Moony.  You know that."

"It's a precaution," his voice dropped to a low growl as the moon rose above the horizon.  Andy stepped away, willing herself to become a lynx.  She watched him transform, wishing that she could do something to ease his pain.  The werewolf collapsed to the floor.  She waited for a moment.  There was always a chance that the potion hadn't worked this time.  It was a chance they had to take every time.

"Moony?" she purred softly as she nudged him with a paw.

"I'm…here," he sounded exhausted.

"Good, you'll be fine then.  Feel free to borrow the bed.  I don't mind.  I have to finish my current experiment."  Still as the feral cat, she saw him curl up on the unmade bed.  Satisfied that he would be alright, she stalked back into the laboratory and returned to human.

Remus awoke a few hours later from shooting pains sparking up and down his spine.  He leapt off the bed knowing that transformation was eminent.  He moaned as his bones lengthened and organs rearranged themselves.  It hurt worse than the earlier change.  It always did.  Feeling like he had been run over by a dozen Mack trucks simultaneously, he collapsed back on the bed, not caring that Andy was there as well.  She had obviously come to bed after he had fallen asleep.

Andy slowly returned to consciousness.  She realized two distinct things before she opened her eyes.  One was that her pillow had obviously been stolen by someone else and two, that the someone who had stolen it was currently being used as her own pillow.  She cracked the seal of sleep, finding herself gazing into a pair of golden eyes.  "Morning, Moony."

"Good morning," he replied, his voice tinged with amusement.

It took her moment to realize that she was almost sprawled out across him.  His chest was being used as a head rest and her arm was flung over the remaining part of his torso.  "You make a excellent pillow.  I hope you don't mind."

"Considering that I am using yours, I don't mind at all."

"Good, because I'm comfortable."

He chuckled.  "Then I don't suppose that you're planning on moving anytime soon?"

"No, not unless you want me to."  She moved one of her arms and found it still asleep.

"That's alright."  Remus patted her gently on the back.  As much as he hadn't expected her to end up this way, it was a pleasant surprise.  "It's my fault anyway.  I should have gone back upstairs."

"Nah, you wouldn't have made it beyond the third step.  I told you that you could stay and you did."

"This still was not supposed to happen.  Sirius is going to kill us."

"He won't."  Andy rolled off him and sat up.  "Though he will pretty pissed which will interesting to see." She paused, noticing the darkening expression on the werewolf's face.  "Don't worry.  He won't care.  He'll understand."

"Are you sure?"

"Only fools are completely positive."

A loud crash resounded from the kitchen.

Remus pulled himself upright.  "He's trying to cook again, isn't he?"

"Yup.  We should get up there."

Moony grabbed a spare shirt that he had left on the nightstand before he climbed the stairs.  He got to the top just as he heard Andy greet Sirius.  There was a pause as the other man saw him enter from the basement door.

"Oh, Sirius," Andy added.  "I forgot to tell you that I slept with you best friend last night."

"That's nice."

"You're just going to let her do that?" Harry questioned.

"Of course.  Here's some advice.  Never try to control a woman.  It doesn't work.  And I can honestly say that by sleeping, all they did was fall asleep on the same mattress, nothing more than that.  Am I right?"

"Yeah, but it's much more fun to tease you."

"See?  She's harmless."

Andy punched him in the arm.  "I am not harmless."

"Fine, mostly harmless."

"Thank you, that's better."

"Hey, do you want breakfast or not, woman?"

"Maybe.  Do you have any plans for today?"

Sirius placed a fried egg on each plate.  "We were planning a fishing trip across the lake for all interested."

Only Ginny refused to look remotely excited.

"Marvelous.  I'm going to Diagon Alley.  There are some things I need to get from the Apothecary."

"Go right ahead."

"Anyone want to come with me instead of spending useless hours out on the lake attempting to hook small swimming creatures that end up being smarter than the average human being?"

"May I go?" the youngest Weasley spoke up, not at all wanting to go fishing.

"Sure.  We're leaving right after breakfast."

Breakfast was a quick meal of eggs and toast, two of the things that Sirius could actually cook.

"Alright, Virginia, let us depart before these idiots try anything else."

Sirius cast her a dark look.  "That was not very nice."

"No, it probably wasn't, but I said it anyways.  Have fun!"  She pulled a handful of Floo powder out of the pot on top of the fireplace and tossed it in.  "You go first, Virginia."  She waited until the girl disappeared before leaping into the flames after her.

Ginny wiped a spot of soot off her robes before Andy appeared a few seconds later.  "I hate Floo," she muttered to herself.   "First stop: Gringotts.  Come along."  The girl tagged along behind her, saying nothing.  She hated Gringotts.  It was too much of a reminder of her family's lack of money.  It bothered her that other families had so much and they had so little.  She was embarrassed by it, to be honest.  She shook her head to clear the negative thoughts as Andy passed off her key to the goblin.  There was a cart waiting for them nearby.  Ginny noticed her Potions Mistress gulp as they buckled themselves into the seats.  It stopped by a small vault.  Andy stepped out after it had been opened.  Ginny saw a meager pile of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, a bit smaller than the quantity in the Weasley vault.

"Damn," the woman swore quietly.  "I'd forgotten about that."  She shoved a few handfuls into a carry sack.  "It'll have to do for now."

They returned to the surface with Ginny having a bit more respect for her instructor.  It had never occurred to her that the Professors were not as wealthy as they seemed to be.  Obviously some did have more than others, but at least she knew they were not filthy rich like some of the pure blood families.

The Apothecary was a small, slightly dilapidated looking shop on a small alley way off of Diagon.  It was run by an equally worn wizard named Jonah Valerian.  "Andromeda!  How nice to see you again!" he sounded excited to see her.  With the state of his shop, he did not get much business.  Most people preferred to go to the other, more well known apothecary shop.  Ginny knew the place.  It was where her family got what they needed for potions are such.  "And Miss Weasley!  How are you?"

"Fine, sir."

"Now what can I do for you today?"

Andy handed her list to the man.  "These are what I will be needing."

Valerian studied the list for a moment, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.  "Yes, I suppose I can find these for you.  They should be around here somewhere…" He trailed off, pulling down buckets, containers, and jars.

"I'm going to go look around for a bit. Just give me a yell when you're finished."

"Certainly, my…" He was cut off by a large explosion out on the street.

Andy swore under her breath, cursing every deity that she could think of.  She peeked out the shop's door and swore louder.  "Ah, fuck.  Virginia, Floo back to the cabin, now.  There are Death Eaters trying to blow up Gringotts.  And Jonah, I'll be back for the order eventually."  She raced out the door into the fray, wand in hand.

Ginny watched her go, mouth agape.  "Death Eaters…"  That wasn't supposed to happen.  Not here in Diagon Alley, especially not in Diagon Alley and Gringotts.  She didn't protest having to leave.  She didn't want to fight in the first place.  It would safer far away from here.

"I knew this was going to happen someday," Jonah muttered.  "I told them that it would, but no, did they listen to me?  Of course not!  Did they heighten defenses?  No!  Don't listen to the old man, they said.  He's delirious.  I knew it!"

"Um, Mr. Valerian, sir?"

He was brought out of his ranting by Ginny's voice.  "Hmm?"

"Andromeda told me to Floo back.  Do you know where I can find a public Floo near here without having to cross the Alley way?"

"Yes, I do.  I have my personal one right back here," he ushered her into a back room with a fire place.  "Here you go.  I do hope Andromeda knows what she's doing."

"She does," Ginny tried to sound confident even though she was anything but.  "Thank you, sir."  She disappeared into the green back to the cabin.

Remus noticed her first.  "Where's Andy?"

Ginny swallowed nervously.  "There was an attack on Gringotts.  She told me to go back here and then ran into the fight.  I don't know where she went after that."

"Shit!" Sirius knew that Virginia Weasley would not lie.  "May the gods damn you to eternity, Andy, for being such a stubborn little bitch!"

"Was that the right thing to do?"

"Yes, it was," his hard face softened.  "Andy can be a bit hasty sometimes, but she'll be fine.  She's a fighter at heart."  He desperately hoped that he was right.

Andy ran into the fray looking less fierce than she felt.  At a little bit over five feet tall and still underweight from her stay in Azkaban, she did not look any where near dangerous.  She seemed more like an innocent bystander than a want-to-be Amazon Warrior.  Appearances, fortunately for her and unfortunately for the Death Eaters, were deceiving.

The Death Eaters had surrounded Gringotts and were currently blasting everything that they could.  Goblins and Aurors lay dead in the street.  'Diagon Alley was a stupid move,' she mused to herself.  'The Aurors were right here, as if they already knew about it.'  Andy cracked a grin.  Severus must have known about it in advance this time.  She shrugged as she ducked behind an over turned cart and began to shoot out curses at whatever Death Eater got close to her.

It took them a few moments to realize that someone was hitting them from behind.  Death Eaters, along with judges, were stupid creatures.  They both failed to realize the obvious.  Two turned, intent on murdering her there and then.  Andy knew she couldn't hold off the whole lot of them, but she would try.  She shot her favorite enchanted knife curse at one of them before the other managed to grab hold of one of her arms.  She swiftly kicked him in solar plexus.  The masked man bent over, gagging for breath.  The other man was jabbed in his groin with her other foot.  He collapsed on the cobblestones moaning incoherently.  A third Death Eater managed to get her in a bear hug from behind, pinning her arms firmly to her sides and lifting her off the pavement.  Andy struggled in his strong arms and found no way out.  Another masked minion patted her mockingly on the cheek.

"Come one, baby, cooperate with us.  It'll make things so much easier."

She spat in his face.  It didn't much other than make the person rather angry.

"Alright, bitch, that's it!  No one messes with me and gets away with it!"

"I do," she whispered to herself as she swung her leg forward and felt it connect solidly with some part of the robed figure.  He stumbled backward as she hit the man holding her between the legs.  He dropped her, having lost all thought of keeping her captive.

The Death Eater that she had originally kicked was regaining focus enough to shoot a curse at her.  It hit her solidly in the back.  Andy staggered forward, tripping on her own feet.  She fell to the ground and lay still.

Closer to the bank, another Death Eater noticed her fall with a shake of his head.  He could never understand why she would throw herself willingly into fights.  The leader of the troops gave a silent signal to retreat.

"MORSMORDE!" the Death Eater called the Mark to the sky and grabbed the fallen body before Apparating away.

Snape appeared a few seconds later in the front entrance way of his house with Andy cradled in his arms.  She was still breathing.  That had to be a good sign.  He knew the curse they cast upon her would do more mental harm than physical.  Taking only enough time to remove his mask, he set up the fire to Floo to Hogwarts.

A few seconds later, he arrived in Dumbledore's office.  The Head Master had been waiting for him.  He noticed the body in Snape's arms.  "What happened?"

"Andromeda stumbled into the fray, decided to be the obstinate Gryffindor that she is, and tried to take on a mass of Death Eaters by herself despite the fact that the Aurors had already arrived," he scowled venomously.

"Oh my," Dumbledore decided, looking rather worried.  "Take her to the infirmary and see what you can do."

"There's nothing I can do, Albus," he snapped, not meaning to do so.  "They hit her with a Soul Separator curse.  She's still alive and will continue to slowly die unless her soul finds its way back to her."

The Head Master's eyes lost their familiar blue twinkle, changing to an icy grey.  "Then take her to the infirmary any ways.  We shall have to see what happens.  Hopefully she will be strong enough to find herself again."

{Author's Note:  I'm evil.  I know I am.  That was a bit of a cliffy, wasn't it?  ::proudly smirks at her achievement::  Ha ha, I know what happens next and you don't!  I need more sleep…I need a lot more sleep…Oh, well.  Hope you enjoyed it!  Please review!  

Anna Black:  I've read that one.  It's hilarious when you actually think about what is going on.  Which instrument do you play?  I understand your situation.  My instructor moved me up to second clarinet and I had to sight read everything toady in band, most of it being sixteenth note runs.  Now that was fun.

Shasa Perino:  The next chapter involves a bit more violence, I can promise that much.  I liked the petition idea.

Angelkas:  I am semi fluent in Spanish, so I understand what I am saying and my beta understands what I mean, so I'm good.

Dy:  They might later on, but not in the next chapter.

Sora G. Silverwind:  The darker stuff comes in the next two chapters and probably more after that.  This is going to be very dark once I get into it, judging by half the ideas that I have so far.

VMorticia:  Well…Twink came from a math class about three years ago.  My math teacher, who was a bit of a nut, was talking to us about the Regents exam (NYS state test).  Her almost exact words were "I can't go up to Travis if he does something wrong and say 'Travis, you twink!  That's not right!'"  Hence, the word twink and where it came from.  Saber was a bit of irony.  A sharp sword for a not so sharp cat.  My cat has run into closed, solid doors before which is where Saber came from.  You are muchly welcome for your bouncing ferrets.

Peace, Love, and Duck Tape, Nataly Ravenlock}


	5. Crucible

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern and my twisted, yet original, plotline.}

**Chapter 5**

**Crucible**

_**"You need people of intelligence for this mission…quest…thing!" "Well, that rules you out, Pip." Pereguin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck in The Fellowship of the Ring**_

Sirius could see the Head Master's grave expression through the green flames of the Floo connection.  "Are you sure that she'll be alright?"

Dumbledore paused, contemplating the best way to word what he had to say.  "No, I'm afraid that I don't know what will happen to her.  Either she will return to us or she will die.  It can't be known now.  Only Andromeda can decide her own fate."

That was not what he wanted to hear.  "Yes, sir."

"Sirius, I won't lie to you and say everything will just fine, for that is not the truth.  Delusions do nothing but give us false hopes that we do not need, especially at times like these.  You still need to live your own life."

"You mean the Ministry still needs me for whatever quest they're trying to send me on."

"No, that's not it at all.  You're abilities do give us an advantage, but there are others that need you as well, like Harry."

"I know."

"Then I suggest you get on with life.  It will be the best thing to do for now, until Andromeda decides to come back to us."

"You honestly think that she will return?"

Dumbledore's clear eyes twinkled in the flames.  "Of course I do.  Andromeda is a strong woman with a lot of life left in her yet.  She'll come back."  Or so he hoped she would.

"Alright.  You still need us to report in a few hours?"

"Yes.  I know it will be difficult for both of you but no one else can or will do it."

"We'll go.  As long as I don't have to go back to the cells, I'll be fine."

"You shouldn't have to.  It's the Administrative building that we're looking for.  That should be no where near the actual holding area."  A knock was heard on the office door.  "I must leave you now.  Until eleven."  The Dumbledore's head disappeared from the flames.

Sirius turned away.  "Shit."  He collapsed into a nearby, worn blue chair, cradling his head in his hands.  "Why do they do this to me?  Why?  Can't the world find another scapegoat other than myself?"

"No, Padfoot, I don't think so," Remus entered the room, dropping a sack in an empty chair.  The house had been quiet since the children left.  The Weasleys had decided to take them for the rest of the summer since both men would be 'occupied' for a few months.  Now with Andy out of commission, there were no more explosions to put a bit of spice in their life.  Thank the gods for a change of pace, though the change of pace was not something necessarily good.

"Why not?"  Sirius decided to be frustrated with everything in general.

"The world enjoys picking on you too much."

"Thanks, Moony," he said sarcastically.  "Do you have everything you need?"

"I think so," the werewolf looked down to the pack.  "Thankfully Andy brewed an extra batch of the potion.  It should last me for at least a month, if not two and we shouldn't be gone that long any way."

"Good.  What else?"

"I went through a few of the boxes in the basement, pulled out a couple of knives and some rope.  With our wands on top of that and a bit of food, we should be fine.  It all depends if we find what we're looking for."

"Yes it does.  What are we looking for in the first place?  No one decided to tell me that yet."

Remus thought for a moment.  "There was a man that was imprisoned in Azkaban in the early 1900's for heresy against the Ministry.  The man was named Wilhelm von Fleckingar.  He was a brilliant scientist in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds and wrote many books about magic, its limits, and its uses.  He also experimented on how to push magic beyond its normal limits, which is how he was convicted in the first place, for disagreeing with the Ministry's restraints.  He kept the books he wrote on his person until he was sentenced to life in the prison.  It is believed that they are someplace in the storage of Azkaban."

Sirius took a few seconds to process what had been said before responding.  "So we're looking for an old box of books in the basement of a high security prison?  Wonderful.  That's just how I wanted to spend my first free summer in a long time."

"You don't understand how important this is, do you?"

"Not really," he admitted.

"If these books are located before Voldemort can get at them, they will give us an advantage against him.  These books unlock doors to things we never dreamed of doing, Padfoot!  Imagine the possibilities!"

"You mean we could fly without brooms or you could be cured or…"

"Exactly."

"Oh.  Well, that explains everything now, doesn't it?"

"It should.  So you understand why this is so important?"

"Yeah," he was thinking other things as well.  Maybe the books would give him access to a way to bring Andy's soul back.  He stood up and grabbed a small worn pack.  "I suppose we should go.  Dumbledore wants to meet with us at eleven."

The Head Master was waiting for them at the front doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  "You're right on time.  We won't be going inside.  There's no need for that."  He lead them down to the pond in silence.  "We can talk here.  It should safe enough.  You both understand what your task is?"

Remus nodded.  "We're going to search the basement of a high security prison that is no longer in operation in order to locate a box of books that belonged to a long dead wizard."

"Yes.  You do realize why the two of you have to do this, correct?  I need to make sure everything is completely understood."

Sirius bit his lower lip.  He did not relish going back to Azkaban.  "Both of us are highly trained in the Dark Arts and the defense thereof?" he guessed.

"That is part of it, yes.  Other than that you both are trained to defend yourselves in case of an attack while you are there, you both are familiar with the grounds of the prison and inconspicuous enough to blend in when needed.  Report back to me when you find what is there."  Dumbledore pulled out a small box from his voluminous robes.  "This is your port key.  It will take you to the office part of Azkaban.  From there, the basement should be labeled on one of the doors.  Good luck, both of you."  He handed them a small terracotta flower pot.

Sirius felt the familiar yank behind his stomach as the Port Key brought them to the prison.  It was just as he remembered it: dark, dreary, and unforgiving.  The Dementors were gone along with the rest of the prisoners.  No one wanted to reopen it again after the attack last summer.  There were other prisons that criminal wizards could be locked up in.  He closed his eyes for a moment, not relishing the idea of going back inside the place he had been trapped in for twelve, lengthy years.

"Are you alright, Padfoot?" Remus placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I'm fine," he was hesitant, but would not admit to it.  He would do this for Andy.  He would do this to get her back.  "Let's go."

The interior was lit only by sunlight streaming through crooked window shades.  No one had bothered to close them when they evacuated the place.  It held an eerie quality to it, like cemetery on a cold winter's night.  Dust motes flecked the air, spinning in gentle eddies.  Desk were covered with papers that hadn't been touched for almost a year.  Their owners had most likely been killed by the Death Eaters during the attack, or if they lived, did not have the courage to return.

Remus wiped the dust off of one piece and read quietly to himself, shaking his head.  He didn't know what to think.  He knew Sirius did not want to be here at all.  He was not the only one who felt apprehensive about being here.  This place was definitely high on the list of creepy places that he did not want to visit again.  He placed it right after the cemetery near the vampire community.  Now that place was disturbing.  All the coffins and their owners…He cleared his head quickly of that memory.  Obviously all of Azkaban's charm had yet to wear off.

"The basement's this way," Sirius's voice had dropped to a whisper.  The place was getting to him as well.

There was a dust covered door clearly marked 'Basement.'  Thankfully, the people had been in a hurry enough to leave it unlocked.  It opened with a loud creak, splitting the blanket of silence that hung like shroud around them.  Sirius peered down into the dark gloom.  It looked an abyss to the lower netherworlds.  He did not doubt that it might very well be one.  Both men lit their wands as they started down the stairs.

The room was enormous.  It could have easily been a small, underground lake with boxes and containers as its fish.  The men looked around, jaws dropping in amazement.

"This could take forever," Padfoot muttered.

"No, there is an easier way to do this."

"There is?  You mean other than go through them one by one?"

Remus nodded and replied in a voice save for small children and mental invalids.  "There is such thing as a locator spell, you know."

"I knew that."

"Sure you did, Padfoot." He thought for a moment.  "_Locate."  His wand spun around pointing them toward a far corner._

"That helped a whole bunch.  Now how many boxes are in that corner?"

"We simply do it again until we locate the correct box."

The task was not as easy as he made it sound.  The boxes were so densely packed together, they either had to move them or climb over them to get to there their destination.  The box was a small non descript brown cardboard.  It could have been mistaken for something other than what was holding the fate of the world.

"Do you want to do the honors?"

Sirius nodded, having let Remus do the searching.  The lid opened to revel a single book.  "This is it?"

"It must be," the werewolf pulled it out and flipped back the cover.  The only words on it were The Diary of Wilhelm Frederick von Fleckingar.  He thumbed through the pages finding all of them blank except for one.  "This is odd.  Listen to this, Padfoot.  _'You have successfully located my belongings.  I assume that you have found this after my death or you would have come to me first.  You are more than likely searching for the notes of the experiments I performed many years ago.  They will not be easy to find, my friends, for I have hid them well.  Good luck.'  Then he signed it.  Underneath is a strange poem thing."_

"You mean that our brilliant scientist wrote a poem to hide his findings?"

"Exactly.  No wonder he was a genius."

"What does it say?"

Remus read it softly, each passage echoing in the dark of the dungeons.

_Have you not yet found my mean?_

_Or do you believe that I have wronged?_

_Given what is said to be_

_What can be done so easily_

_As to find my hidden lot_

_Respect the place the stone dragon sleeps_

_To lurk by the serpent's enemy_

_Stays the treasure that I leave you.___

Stunned silence bathed the duo as they attempted to translate what had been said.  "Well, I say he's gone nutters.  I mean, what kind of clues are those?" Sirius spoke up, sounding extremely perturbed.

"I honestly do not know.  We should bring this back to Dumbledore.  He'll know what to do with it."

"Yeah, that would be the intelligent thing to do."  Padfoot paused for a moment.  "Hey Moony, if we were able to find this guy's things, do you think mine would be down here too?"

"Probably.  We could try.  Andy's would be here as well."

"I'll find mine, you get hers."  Sirius left before the other man could protest.

Remus focused his thoughts on Andy and spoke the spell once more.  It led him to another nondescript cardboard box.  He opened it, not knowing what to expect.  The only thing in it was the small black purse that she had been carrying on the night of her arrest.  He bit his lower lip, remembering the fateful night in full detail.  No, he would not let those things get to him.  They may be in the basements of the most feared place in the Wizarding community, but it would not let him go crazy yet.  "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah, I got my box," Sirius reappeared wearing an odd-looking maroon ski cap with the ear flaps and ties hanging loose.  "I found my old hat."

"Are you ready to go?"

"The sooner we get out of this place, the better."

They walked back upstairs to the dusty, deserted office.  Remus walked out the door without a second glance.  Sirius turned for a moment, waiting as if something would come.  He hated this place with every ounce of his soul.  It was deserted now, but the memories of Azkaban still lived on within his memories and the memories of the others that had survived their hideous stay in the cells next door.  He didn't want to think about it.

Remus had their Port-key out by the time he appeared outside.  The werewolf did not ask any questions, for which Sirius was glad for.  He held the terracotta flower pot for the other man to touch as well.  As soon as both had their fingers on it, they were pulled back to the outskirts of Hogwarts, leaving an open door creaking eerily in their wake.  Azkaban was uninhabited once more.

{Author's Note:  I think I'll leave it at there for now.  That was a freaky enough chapter for me to write without attempting to write more.  There will be more, don't worry.  There is a cookie for anyone that figures out what the poem means.  I am actually quite proud of it.  It was written when I had a pounding sinus headache and I had been thinking in Spanish for the past hour.  That is a very bad combination, by the way in case anyone was wondering.  So if anyone understands what it means, you get a cookie.  Or at least you get a very surprised me.  I'll be quiet now.  I'm rambling because I got a 91 on my Pre-calc test and I am absolutely thrilled by that!  By the way, the line from the last chapter when Andy was upgraded from 'harmless' to 'mostly harmless,' is from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

Dy:  Twink is a word that my math teacher in eighth grade made up.  I used it as a nickname for a hamster that I had a few years ago.  The hamster's actual name was Samari, as in samurai spelled wrong.  I called him twink for short.

Anna Black: Candy will do that.  So will coffee, which is why my friends will not let me have it any more.  We have a concert band, a jazz band, and a marching band.  I have no clue what level we play at.  I'm in the fifth seat, if I can count correctly, in the section even though I just started last May.  Clarinets are made out wood!  What was she talking about?  Mine's plastic, though.  It was my aunt's.  No, I have not seen the movie.  I did realize that you were doing that.  It would require me to write a third part and I don't even have the second part written beyond the beginning of chapter 6.

Angelkas:  Nope, I don't get it and you don't know who I am so we're even.

Iggie:  Though Gaff tape is usually more effective and duct tape would not stick to the giant blow up Frankenstein that we had.  Ignore that part, it's useless.

Shasa Perino:  Because I am evil, that is why there is a cliffie.

VMorticia:  I meant to put a disclaimer in for that when I wrote it, so there is now one in this chapter.  Andy has a temper and an attitude problem, but as you said, she would have to be a Gryffindor to run out into the middle of a fight without thinking.  I was having a bit too much fun with the fight scene, I suppose.  Less coffee for me…Don't worry, it is a nasty curse.  The next chapter is not necessarily violence, but its dark and dreary.

Sora G. Silverwind: Yes, it is an evil cliffie, but my job is to be evil.  I try to make my curses as interesting as possible.

Peace, Love, and Green Tea, Nataly Ravenlock}


	6. Wings

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern and my twisted, yet original, plotline.}

**Chapter 6**

**Wings**

_**Give me my wings/ I'm ready to fly today/ Ready to wave my worries good-bye/ Give me my wings/ I'm ready to ride away/ Ready to leave my troubles behind/ What's over my head will soon be under my feet/ Give me my wings.  "WIngs" 4Him**_

Severus Snape stalked through the halls emanating a strange sense of malicious intent.  Namely, he was not extremely happy.  Then again, was he ever a very happy person?  That was something to think about.  Had he ever been content with life?  No times sparked any memory of being delighted with the lot he was given.  None at all could bear a resemblance of being ecstatic over something or someone.  He growled to himself.  That only succeeded in spooking Mrs. Norris, who had been lurking behind a statue nearby and did nothing to ease the angry cloud of gloom that hung over his head.

It was all Andy's fault, of course.  Who else could he blame for making him miserable?  She was the only one that had successfully made him dismal after all these years.  She had a way with that, being one of the few people who could really piss him off despite his cold exterior.  He cursed her under his breath.  It was a hopeless thing to do, but he did it any way.  It was always easier to hurt your enemies when they were down.  He paused.  She wasn't exactly his enemy, but the word worked for now.  She just had to go and try to get her self killed.  Again.  No, it wasn't the first time.  It never was the first with Andy.  She had the natural Gryffindor stupidity to throw herself into any situation without a thought about her wellbeing.  Damn her!

Snape stomped into his rooms.  She wasn't his problem any more.  Poppy had returned from her brief vacation to the Mediterranean Coast.  The Mediwitch would take care of her now.  He grabbed the trunks that he had packed earlier and placed a quick levitating spell on them.  To be able to relax and take a well needed, peaceful vacation would do him some good.  He needed to be away from all the people in the world.  He wanted to be alone, by himself for once.  Crowds were never a favorite of his despite the fact that he worked in school.  People irked him with their troglodytic ways.  They did not understand the subtleties of intelligence or when to be quiet.  He would have liked to bolt a few mouths shut though regulations did not allow him to.  He made his way out of the nearly empty castle, almost running into a harried looking Black and Lupin.  It was a pleasure to sneer at them as he disappeared from view.

His house was empty as he left it.  Not a creature stirred in its solemn depths.  He liked it that way: empty, lifeless, soulless.  No, not soulless.  There were too many memories attached to the building to leave it without a soul.  He dropped the trunk by the front door with a shake of his head.  His hair was getting rather shaggy again, he noticed absently.  It would have to be trimmed.  The house felt different.  That could not be good.  He paced through the lifeless corridors searching for something that would have changed the atmosphere.  There was nothing that he could find that had a chance of being wrong.  Maybe he just had not been here for a while.  Yes, that must be it.

He brewed himself a mug of tea with a flick of his wand.  It was strong and black, just the way he liked it.  His opinion of coffee was the same.  Beverages tasted the best plain and simple.  He took the forest green mug and relaxed for a moment in an arm chair in his living room.  Snape took a sip of the tea, finding it to be the right temperature for drinking.  He peered over the rim at the monolithic grand piano in the middle of the room.

It was his pride and joy.  The instrument was a Steinway Grand.  No baby grand would do for him.  It was black, shiny, and sang like a symphony choir.  He had gotten it used, but the condition was wonderful.  After a few coats of polish and getting it tuned, the instrument was in rare condition.  It was then he noticed what felt wrong: there was something sitting on the bench.

He used the term 'something' loosely.  The something looked like a ghost, slightly more substantial and in full color.  Unfortunately for him, the features were completely recognizable.  "You just don't give up, do you, McGee?  You always find someway to ruin my life, don't you?"

The shade look up, translucent fingers tracing unheard patterns over the keys.  He gasped soundlessly.  It was Andy's soul most definitely.  Her image seemed to appear as she had before she was imprisoned in Azkaban.  Her face was fuller, younger with searching dark eyes and a long braid of golden hair trailing down her back.  A few errant wisps strayed over her sad smile.  She brushed them away with a careless wave of her hand.  "You used to play so beautifully.  You would play for me sometimes when I asked you to.  It was always classical music, never the modern pieces.  Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn, Vivaldi, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky…Never the happy ones, always the darker, dreary pieces," the shade nodded to herself.  "Yes, I played too, but never as well you did.  Will you play for me, Sev?  One more time, before I go away?  The keys won't work for me.  They'll sing for you."

His brow furrowed deeply.  Where had she come from?  Better yet, how had she gotten here?  Why the hell had she come for him?  It would have been more likely that she would have gone to find Black and Lupin than him.  "Why me?" he muttered under his breath.

"Because you understand."

"I understand?  Once again, you fail to make any sense, McGee."

She said nothing in return, only staring at him with those dark, pain-filled eyes.  "Please."

The Slytherin set down his tea mug and stood up.  The shade did not move from her seat.  "If I am to play, you must remove yourself from the bench."

"Thank you."  Andy's soul floated off the seat.

Snape stretched his fingers and set them down on the keys.  He had missed the instrument dearly.  The one at Hogwarts has always been less superior.  What to play for a ghost?  He hit a few notes, not knowing what song they came from.  The tune was recognizable once he thought about it.  Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven.  It was a slow piece, but gorgeous in its own right.  The streams of silver starlight without the glow from an invisible moon had reminded him off it.  He let his fingers play the notes, not concentrating on them.  It was easier that way.  The less he concentrated, the better the song sounded.

The melody weaved itself through the air intertwining with harmonizing bass.  Snape let his mind lose itself in the notes.  He let his fingers play what they knew was right until they hit the final, triumphant chords.  He paused, his fingers caressing the ivory keys one final time before he looked up.  The shade had disappeared…

Andy had felt the curse hit her square between the shoulder blades.  Her feet lost all response and she had fallen hard on the side walk below though she had not felt it.  The curse had begun to work by then.  Her soul slowly peeled itself away from every tiny crevice in her body.  It seeped out and reformed in the air above her.  The only coherent thought she could remember was 'is that me down there?'  The full impact had yet to register in what was left of her mind.

She had floated upward toward the sun.  It felt free, like she was a small bird soaring in the heaven above.  The farmlands below were a chess board and she was the queen with power to go anywhere and everywhere.  Andy spread her wings and flew.

It had taken her a long while to finally realize that she normally could not fly and should not by any means be floating freely above the ground without anything holding her up.  It had taken her a few moments beyond that to come to the idea that if she was able to do such a thing then she might be dead.  The thought made perfect sense to her jangled state of mind.  She certainly had enough unfinished business to take care of.  It was impossible to know for sure.  She certainly did not feel like a ghost.  Andy pondered the thought before she dismissed it.  How else could it be explained?  There were probably other explanations but they seemed insignificant at the moment.

She let herself fall back down to earth like a feather floating in the breeze.  There was no where she had to be and no specific people she had to meet with that she knew of at the moment.  If there were any to begin with, she had most likely forgotten about them.

The street she landed in was filled with people who seemed to ignore her very existence.  That was to be expected, she decided glumly.  She had better get used to it.  Over to her left sat an old man on a park bench eating a sandwich and feeding a nearby flock of pigeons.  Andy sat morosely next to him, laying her head in her hands.  It was useless to do anything else.  No one knew she was dead or if she was really dead.   She would not give up her hopes yet.

Invisible tears crept down her cheeks into pools in her translucent palms.  There would be no more Andromeda Josephine McGee in this world.  They would have to learn to live without her.  They had done it for years before when she had been in Azkaban.  She had a feeling that it would not be too difficult for then to do.  She had only been back for a bit over a year.  Damn it!  She cursed the world and everyone in it that had decided to make her life miserable.

"There, there, dear, don't cry," the man sitting next to her spoke soothingly as he tossed another crumb to the birds.  "Men are never worth it.  My wife told me that once.  We were together for over fifty years before she passed away, said she only married me because I was a gentleman."

"It isn't men that's my problem," she replied in an indirect mumble.  "Well, it was a problem, but we solved it or at least attempted to."

"Then if it's not relationships, what else can there be to trouble you?  World hunger can't cause that many tears."

Andy turned her head to look up at him, snapping sarcastically.  "My problem is that I think I'm dead."

"Oh, really?" he threw another chunk of the bread to his waiting flock.  "And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"There was an attack and I ran into the fray of it and got cursed and then I was flying and ended up here.  I think the curse killed me."

He nodded thoughtfully.  "I think that you might have a problem though I can tell you that you are definitely not dead."

"What did you say?"

"I said that you are not dead.  It was quite clear and concise actually.  I took all my pills this morning, I know I'm comprehensible enough for normal people to hear me."

Andy kept her opinion that this man had no clue what he was talking about it to herself.  "How did you come to the conclusion that I'm not dead?"  Her voice wavered as she asked the question.

"It's rather a quite simple answer, my dear.  You see, if you were dead, you would be a ghost and ghosts are naturally white and shades of grey, not colored as you are.  So therefore you cannot be a ghost, and are not dead."

"If I'm not dead, then what am I?"

He looked at her with a cocked head.  "You're a soul or a shade of a living person."

"What does that mean exactly?"

"It means that your body is somewhere out there and waiting for you to return to it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," the man sounded exasperated with her.  "It's simple actually, if you were cursed there are a few that can separate the soul from the body.  Some of them are extremely lethal and cannot be reversed.  But since you are talking to me and still are capable of emotion then you must be not completely dead."

"So I'm mostly dead?"

"If that's how you wish to put it, then yes, mostly dead."

"Oh.  Can I come back to life?"

"If you find your body before you fade away, you can."

"Thank you, sir, you have been a huge help."

"You're welcome, my dear girl.  I hope you find your body soon."

"I shall try to," Andy floated off the park bench feeling lighter than she had when she landed.  She did not know how long it had been, but it had been long enough.  It did not occur to her why the man knew about souls and shades and curses, but honestly she did not care.  She was going home.

            The man watched her go with a shake of his head.  It was a pity that the younger generation could get away with things like this.  He stood up and disappeared down the street.  The paper bag that he had been feeding the pigeons from was left in a trash bin nearby.  All that was left of their passing was a few left over crumbs and the remaining birds pecking away at them. 

{Author's Note:  The Moonlight Sonata is a very pretty piece to play.  I like Beethoven.  He's fun.  The 'mostly dead' thing came Princess Bride, which is an awesome movie.  I know this was short chapter, but as I said this is production week of our play, entitled I Never Saw Another Butterfly, for those of you wondering.  It's a rather depressing Holocaust based play, but it's interesting, especially considering my boyfriend and I are the Father and Mother of the main character.  The drama teacher has been teasing us incessantly since she realized that we were going out.  Oh, well.  C'est la vie. __

Kary Starr:  How long has it been since I heard from you?  Methinks too long.  Ah, well.  Suck it up and deal with it.  So you're planning on disemboweling me if I don't put Andy and Snape together?  Sounds like fun though you did not say with what.  I honestly have no clue what's going to happen in the end.  I know Snape gets snogged some time in the future and Sirius almost dies if that helps a bit.  But then Andy gets pissed at Snape for some unforeclosed reasons and Sirius gets pissed at Andy for close to the same reasons so things are twisted up pretty bad.  Oh, here's Snape.  He'll be playing a bigger part later on.  And he is hot so why wouldn't he be before?  You are reviewer 100 on Second Chances by the way.  I thought you might be thrilled by that.

Anna Black: Close, but no cookie for you.

Shasa Perino:  I'm sorry that you are in a bad mood.  I don't mind being flamed.  No one has ever flamed me yet.  Nope, not the Chamber of Secrets.  I was tempted, but no.

Angelkas:  The symbol Ravenclaw is an eagle, not a raven.  It's good idea.  I think you're the closest right now.  The poem honestly makes perfect sense to me, especially the statue part.

VMorticia: I'm glad someone liked my creep factor.  I reread that chapter and it sort of gave me chills.  I did?  If I say something, I don't necessarily go through with it.  I only remember saying that it was going to get darker.  Yes, you can have a cookie any way, despite the fact that no one has gotten the obvious point.  It's not the CoS or Romania, though that would make things interesting.  I might have them end up in Romania for the hell of it though.  It would make things amusing.

Atheis Gainsborough:  I had to put some comic relief in that chapter since it was getting rather dark, so Sirius picked that part up.  I like your approach.  Don't even bother to try to figure it out.  Darn, that means, I have to do some work on figuring it out myself.

Sora G. Silverwind:  Marching Band is over, but production week is going on so I'm at school almost 24-7.  Hopefully when that is done, I'll be set and have time to write.  The poem makes no sense to me either and I wrote it.  I'm still not sure where exactly the treasure is hidden yet though I have ideas.

Iggie:  Yes, Gaff tape.  That's okay, I understand bad days very well.

Dy: Thanks!

Jynx:  I plan to get more onto Andy's side of what is happening.  I have two very conflicting ideas about it right now and I don't know which is going to happen.  That might just mean that I have to write them down, doesn't it?

Peace, Love, and Toe Socks, Nataly Ravenlock}


	7. Birds Of A Feather

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for my twisted plot and the characters of Andromeda McGee and Wyvern.}

Shane, this one's for you, despite that I can't write when I'm happy with life, which is your fault that I am, but I don't mind.  Love you!

**Chapter 7**

**Birds Of A Feather**

_**Cada oveja con su pareja, Spanish Proverb**_

He liked the pigeons.  He honestly did.  They were so lively, and iridescent, and pretty, and sweet, and lovable, and despicable, and malicious, and evil.   Damn it!  He swore under his breath.  He hated pigeons.  Nothing could change that, not even his Master's wishes.  In fact he hated all birds, pigeons especially.  They were gross, disgusting, little, hollow-boned cretins that only deserved to have their puny necks wrung and every single droplet of blood squeezed forcefully out of them.

But he was forced to be there under the threat of death and extreme pain.  He would have to put up with it for now, but some unfortunate soul was going to pay for his torture.  It would probably be the pigeons.

Of course there were other people that he could have put into immense amounts of misery just because of this, but the avians would generate much more pleasure.  He sat down on the park bench, noticing how decrepit it looked.  It needed at least a new coat of paint, if not a whole new entire bench to begin with.  He wished he could fix it to make it more to his liking, but things were not happening in the way he wanted them too.  At least it was green, he mused to himself.  They could have made things worse and painted it red.  That would have really ticked him off; to be forced to associate with the color of his archenemies.  He did not want to think about it.

He reached his hand into the bottom of the paper sack and felt the small orb, still warm from its creation earlier in the day.  His Master had given it to him with direct orders as to how it worked.  He shuddered at the thought of the meeting.

_"Calhoun," Lord Voldemort hissed unpleasantly._

_"Yes, Master?" the man groveled at the foot of the tall throne.  Groveling was something the Master always appreciated._

_"I have a task for you, Calhoun.  The other nitwits here," he gestured with his wand toward a pile of dead bodies in the corner, " did not seem to comprehend my meaning when I said not to harm the person under the name of Andromeda McGee.  They seemed to have misunderstood my clear, concise directions and now her soul is floating somewhere unbeknownst to us.  Your task is to locate her soul and make certain she knows she is not dead."_

_"Yes, Master," Joshua Calhoun had no clear idea how he was to complete this task, but did not dare to ask._

_"I am giving you this," a small opalescent orb appeared in Voldemort's hand.  "It attracts wandering spirits.  It will work to confirm her existence."_

_"Thank you, Master," the orb floated down to where Calhoun was still on his knees. He began to stand._

_"**Crucio!"**___

_The Death Eater fell back to the ground, screams of agony escaping his lips._

_"You must be punished as well, for you did not stop your compatriots from not harming the woman.  You will disguise yourself as an old man in the park, feeding the birds.  She will think you harmless and come to you.  **Finite Incantatem." Voldemort laughed maliciously as Calhoun scrambled out of the room, orb clutched in his hand.**_

Joshua shook his head to clear the memory.  It was not the first time he had been placed under the Cruciatus curse nor would it be the last.  He had found an aging potion quite easily and now looked about mid eighties instead of a much younger twenty three.

He saw the shade well before she saw him. It would be easier to play the part than to give anything away as to who he actually was.  She was a pathetic creature, crying and sobbing.  He wanted to slap some sense into her, but knew it would be useless.  How the hell did he get himself into this?  "There, there, dear, don't cry," he tried to sound soothingly as he tossed a mocking crumb to the birds.  "Men are never worth it.  My wife told me that once.  We were together for over fifty years before she passed away, said she only married me because I was a gentleman."  The was a complete lie, but it sounded good.

"It isn't men that's my problem," she mumbled.  He could barely hear her over the sounds of the traffic and the people.  "Well, it was a problem, but we solved it or at least attempted to."

"Then if it's not relationships, what else can there be to trouble you?  World hunger can't cause that many tears."  He wanted to swear, to curse, to light something on fire and watch it burn.

The shade's head snapped up, her eyes ablaze.  "My problem is that I think I'm dead."

"Oh, really?" he threw another chunk of the bread to his waiting flock though he wanted to kick the pigeons instead.  "And how did you come to that conclusion?"

"There was an attack and I ran into the fray of it and got cursed and then I was flying and ended up here.  I think the curse killed me."

He nodded thoughtfully.  He had been there.  He knew exactly what had happened.  "I think that you might have a problem though I can tell you that you are definitely not dead."

"What did you say?"

"I said that you are not dead.  It was quite clear and concise actually.  I took all my pills this morning, I know I'm comprehensible enough for normal people to hear me."  

"How did you come to the conclusion that I'm not dead?"  Her voice wavered as she asked the question.

"It's rather a quite simple answer, my dear.  You see, if you were dead, you would be a ghost and ghosts are naturally white and shades of grey, not colored as you are.  So therefore you cannot be a ghost, and are not dead."  It was a matter of knowing how to lie through his teeth.  Damn Gryffindors always took everything at face value and nothing more.

"If I'm not dead, then what am I?"

Joshua Calhoun sighed as if he expected her to know these things.  "You're a soul or a shade of a living person."

"What does that mean exactly?"

"It means that your body is somewhere out there and waiting for you to return to it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really," She was beginning to exasperate him.  "It's simple actually, if you were cursed there are a few that can separate the soul from the body.  Some of them are extremely lethal and cannot be reversed.  But since you are talking to me and still are capable of emotion then you must be not completely dead."

"So I'm mostly dead?"

"If that's how you wish to put it, then yes, mostly dead."

"Oh.  Can I come back to life?"

"If you find your body before you fade away, you can."

"Thank you, sir, you have been a huge help."

"You're welcome, my dear girl.  I hope you find your body soon."  No, he actually didn't, he wished she was dead, but Lord Voldemort did and that made all the difference as to what he wanted in life.

"I shall try to," the shade floated off the bench and thankfully away from him.  He chucked the bag into a metal trash receptacle and kicked a few pigeons on the way down the street.  It was people like her that made his life completely miserable.  He hated Gryffindors.   They were the low life scum of the universe.

Andy floated back to the clouds, a huge grin playing across her lips.  She wasn't dead!  Woo-hoo!  She was alive!  That was wrong.  She was not alive yet; she still had to find her body.  Who would know where her body was, if any body?  She thought for a moment before coming to the conclusion that Albus Dumbledore, who knew everything about anything and then some, would be the best bet to locate what she was searching for.

That brought her to the next question: where was she to begin with?  And how would she get to Hogwarts from where she was?  That could pose some difficulties given that Hogwarts was un-plottable.  She growled under her breath and spooked a nearby flock of geese.  They honked at her, seeming perturbed that she interrupted their flight.  Finding it amusing, Andy dove through the V-like formation, joining in with the birds and letting herself fly.  She knew that there was hope for her now and that her life would not be wasted.  People would not be forced to forget her once more like had been done in the past.  She would not let them this time.

She followed the geese until it grew dark and they landed in a shallow pond.  She did not recognize the pond, but she did know the village nearby.  She had grown up near here.  In fact, if she remembered correctly, which she usually did, her old house was…she flew another mile or so until she reached an older building.  There were lights on inside and the voices of people could be heard through open windows.

Andy swallowed back a lump in her throat.  She knew one of those voices.  It had to be him, it just had to be.  She peeked her head around the corner of a window shade and hoped the family would not notice.  Most people seemed to be ignoring her as it was.  

Yes, it was him.  It was Ben, her brother.  He was older, but it was still him.  He had always been one of those people that did not change despite the years that had passed.  He still had his dark hair from their mother's side and wore it in a long braid down his back.  His dark eyes, the one physical trait they shared, sparkled in the glow of electric lighting.  She could hear his ready laughter and the voices of others.  Andy bowed her head for a moment, not knowing what to do.  It was Ben, she was sure of that, but who else.  She peered back through the open shutters into the dining room, this time.  Six people sat around a large table eating and sharing their days' experience.

It was Ben at the head of the table.  Around him were five children of various ages, obviously his children.  A woman with short, auburn hair entered the room carrying a steaming dish.  She set it down on the table and gave Ben a quick kiss on the cheek.  Ben had gotten married, Andy realized, and she had missed it.  A younger girl giggled at her parents' behavior while a few of the older siblings rolled their eyes.  They seemed to be used to it by now.  The woman uncovered the dishes before she sat down.  A child's hand was swatted lightly as he attempted to steal a piece of bread.  Ben began to lead the family in a prayer of thanks.

Andy turned her head again and floated back to the ground.  She returned to the goose pond and sobbed quietly to herself.  She had missed everything that had happened to her brother in those long years she had been penned away from the world.  He had found someone he loved and gotten married and they had had four children that she could she.  For all she knew there might have been more.  And she had missed it all…

There was no use crying about something she could not change.  She made her mind to go back there eventually, just to see him again.  Yes, that's what she would do.  She would take it upon herself to return.  Right now, there other things she had to return to, like her body for instance.  Now that she knew basically where she was, Hogwarts could not be that difficult to locate.  It was north and so she spread her arms and flew.

Villages and people passed beneath her like pictures and still life's in moving color.  At night, everything was shades of black, grey, and purple with tinges of blue every so often.  A few lights were still on though they tended to flicker.  Andy did not care.  She was going home.  It did not matter what it took to get there, but she was going back to where she had come from and that place was Hogwarts.  That's where her answers would lie.

The castle came up quicker than she had expected.  Bright lights echoed from many of the windows.  Only few stayed dark and dismal, but that was to always be expected.  Some of the rooms had yet to be found.  By chance, she flew into the infirmary window, attracted by a sudden pull.  There, on the bed, lay a body covered by a single white sheet.  It looked dead.

It took her a moment to realize who it was.  It was her.  It was the body that she had been torn away from, the body she would return to.  Andy placed her hand on the cold, pale face.  Something inside sucked her into it.  The world spun around her as if she had been pulled into a fierce vortex.  The world snapped and Andy opened her eyes.  She was free.  She was alive.  She couldn't move.

{Author's Note:  And yet another cliffie… You guys really are going to kill me, aren't you?  Oh, well, that's your problem, so hope you enjoyed chapter 7.  I apologize for taking so long.  I have been extremely busy.  The play ended a two weeks ago so my boyfriend and I are no longer a married couple and the drama teacher cannot pick on us incessantly until the musical.  In the mean time, I have had so many allergy appointments, its not even funny any more.  They figured out that I'm allergic to a whole bunch of crap, except for penicillin and dogs.  Wonderful, is it not?  Yep, that's me for you.  Have fun!

Dy: Yes, I can play a version of Moonlight Sonata.  I think I was beginning to annoy my mom with it because she let me go out and get a new piano book.  Which prelude to Opera 28?  I found a sheet music site online and there's a whole bunch of them all numbered but not labled by name.  I will look into it.

VMorticia:  I can honestly say that I get the Anya thing.  One of my friends decided that I was like Anya because I told her "You can't have him, he's mine," referring to my boyfriend.  I like creep factors, they're amusing.  "Genocidal Army Against Insects?"  Oh, my…I could have way too much fun with that, though I like bugs.  Bugs are fun.  I talk to the spiders on my walls.  They usually get named.  But that's just me and we all know I have problems.

Shasa Perino:  You weren't the only one who got confused.  I got confused writing the whole thing.

Sora G. Silverwind:  I think I've played part of the Lizst piece.  I remember the name from one of my books.  Malaguena is by Georges Bizet from his opera 'Carmen.'  That's another fun piece to play.  Personally, right now I'm working on Tchaikovsky's Nut Cracker and a bit of Jim Brickman, who's a jazz pianist.

Peace, Love, and Toe Socks, Nataly Ravenlock}


	8. Dragon's Teeth

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this except for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few random Death Eaters who are all twisted figments of my imagination.}

**Chapter 8**

**Dragon's Teeth**

_**"Something is rotten in the state of __Denmark__."  Hamlet Act I, sc. v, line 100**_

Sirius glared at the scrap of paper to his left then at the notes he had written down.  It made no sense, none at all.  He growled menacingly at it in hope that aggression would help solve his conundrums.  It didn't.  Slamming his fist onto the desk, he stood up and began to pace the room.

"Gods and all demons be damned to eternity, why the hell won't this thing work?  It seems so simple, but no, do you think it would be?  Of course not!"

From a desolate, warm corner, Wyvern purred reassuringly.  Sirius glanced down at the cat.  "Oh, you know all the answers, do you?  Think you're omnipotent, eh, cat?"

Wyvern cocked her head at him before deciding that her paw needed to be cleaned.  She gave it a single lick and rubbed her right ear.  Looking up at the tall man again, she stood and stretched, only to rub against his leg.  She squeaked stubbornly to him before disappearing through a small cat door that had been thoughtfully installed in the door.

"Damn cat."  On a whim, he followed her, though he did use the larger door instead of attempting to fit through one that was made for a creature less than a sixth of his size.

Wyvern was waiting for him outside the aperture.  She stalked down the hall, tail held high and swishing in every direction.  "So where are we going, cat?"

She answered him only with a flick of her tail.  Sirius shook his head.  Why was he doing this?  It made no sense, but anything made more sense than the riddle he was suppose to figure out.  He wondered if the cat actually had a direction that she wanted to go or if they were just going to wander through out the castle until he got bored and gave up.  The feline halted in front of the infirmary.

"That's what you want, isn't it, cat?  You wanted to see Andy.  They don't let you in here," he chuckled to himself.  "Alright, cat, let's go see Andy," he scooped up the creature in his arms and opened the door.

Andy was right where she had been for the past weeks.  The attack had been early July.  It was now mid-August.  There had been no changes with how she was doing.  Poppy said she was fine, but he refused to agree.  She would not be 'fine' until she was fully alive again.  Wyvern jumped from his arms onto Andy's bed.  The cat kneaded the light sheet that had been casually placed over the soulless body.

Sirius swallowed glumly as he looked down at his beloved.  Yes, in his mind, she was still 'his' despite anything she said.  He sat down in the chair beside the bed and took her hand in his own.  It was surprisingly warm.  That took a moment to process correctly.  Her hand was warm, alive.  He sprang back up, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Andy?  Andy?"

There was no verbal answer.

"Andy, are you alive?"

He felt a brief squeeze in his hand.

"You're back!"  He leaned down to kiss her on the lips.

Andy's eyes flashed open at the touch.  She still couldn't control any of her major muscles.  The hand squeeze had taken so much out of her.  She let her eyes close once again.  She was so tired…

Sirius noticed that Andy had gone back to sleep.  She lived!  She was not going to die on him.  She was going to survive and they would live happily ever after.  Yeah, right, but there was always the thought.  He sauntered up to Dumbledore's office with a wide grin on his face.  "Licorice Twists."  The gargoyle spun open.  The Head Master and Remus were hunched over the large desk going over plans for something.

"Ah, Sirius, have you found anything yet?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't, but that's not why I'm here.  It's about Andy."

"Oh?"

"I was just down in the infirmary because her cat wanted to see her."

Remus gave him a look that showed he didn't believe it was just the cat that wanted to see her.  "And?"

"I think she's back."

"Wonderful!  Are you certain?"

"No, sir, but her eyes are open and she was able to squeeze my hand.  She knew I was there."

"I shall notify Poppy.  It may take awhile for the soul to fully reconnect itself with the body after being away so long."  Dumbledore sent a quick Floo message down to Madame Pomfrey's rooms.  "There.  Poppy will begin treatment to get Andromeda back to normal.  Now what were you saying, Remus?"

"I've been thinking about the riddle.  The part that sticks with me is the stone dragon thing.  I did a bit of research on von Fleckingar and it seems that he comes from Romania, to be more exact a small town in the Transylvanian Alps."

"And Romania has dragons," Sirius added thoughtfully.

"So I think that might have something to do with it."

"You wish to go to the place where von Fleckingar was born to see if it has any connection with the riddle?"

"Yes, I feel it would be the best place to start.  It might offer some assistance."

"Very well, when do wish to leave?"

"As soon as possible."

A few hours later, Dumbledore had gotten them a port key to the outskirts of the small village in the Transylvanian Alps.  It was a tiny wizarding town with few inhabitants but a good vacation spot for those who like tall mountains and remote forests.

Sirius pushed a nearby branch away from his face.  "You would think they'd be able to clear the path between here and town, but no, of course not.  Where's the hospitality?"

"This isn't exactly a prime location, Padfoot, and we happen to be following a deserted logging trail."

"Damn," he cursed softly under his breath as the town came into view.  Everything was burnt to a charred crisp.  Ashes floated lazily in the eddies that wove through half standing buildings.  "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

Remus nodded numbly.  He knew what could have caused such mass destruction.  "Yes, we're in the right place."  He couldn't believe what he saw.  No full structures stood with out marks of fire and destruction.  Burn marks left nothing untouched.  A few blazes still smoldered in the ashes left behind.

"Remus, Remus, what happened?"

The werewolf blinked a few times to clear his vision, hoping that what he had seen was not really there.  Unfortunately, it still existed.  "What?"

"I asked if you knew what had happened."

There was a pause before he spoke.  "I think I do."

"Then what is it?"

"Dragons…" he whispered almost as if it were a dream.

"Dragons?"

Remus said nothing and continued to stare at the mass destruction.

"Dragons?" Sirius asked again in disbelief.  "They could something this…this terrible?"

The werewolf let his eyes close again.  It reminded him of the night James and Lily had been killed.  _Small fires still burned in the remainders of Godric's Hollow.  Mediwitches carted the two bodies away, encased in stiff sheets.  James and Lily…so young, but having lived through so much more than they should have.  And baby Harry, shipped off to Lily's sister…It was a pity he couldn't be raised a wizard, but it was all for the best.  Poor lad would have enough to worry about when he would go to Hogwarts.  He stared at the ashes wishing it wasn't real and that he had imagined the entire thing.  It was just a bad dream, a horrible nightmare.  No, it was real…And it would never go away._

"Yes, Padfoot," he said heavily.  "They could and they did."

"But dragons don't usually attack people or settlements."

"I know that."

"Which means something is wrong with all of this."

Remus turned toward the other man.  Sirius was standing a few feet away, a handful of ashes drifting through his fingertips into the breeze.  "Sometimes, you never fail to amaze me."

"Something is wrong, isn't it?  It just doesn't feel right."

"I get the same feeling.  Dragons would not randomly attack an inhabited town with out reason."

"Unless there was a reason."

"What type of motive would provoke an attack, especially one of this dimension?"

"Illegal poaching, territorial disputes, food…"

"You weren't supposed to answer that.  It was a rhetorical question."

"Sorry," Sirius let the rest of the ash fall through his finger tips.  He wandered forward through the ruins hoping to find a semblance of life that could tell him what had happened and why.  There was nobody still alive.  No person had survived the attack and if they had, they disappeared not wanting to be reminded of what had happened.  He leaned down and picked up a small object on the ground.  It was a small child's toy, a rag doll with yarn hair and button eyes, one arm hanging loosely by only a few threads.  Her dress was torn and tattered with scorch marks running across the hem.  The child that it once belonged to was nowhere to be seen.  He assumed she had been killed.

Remus followed like a ghost behind his friend.  He still couldn't believe that any of this had happened.  Sirius had been right; this was not normal, especially for dragons.  Dragons were known to be solitary creatures at best.  The destruction here looked to be from more than one, if not a dozen or more.  It surprised him that so many could work together without murdering one another.  It was unnatural, for the sake of a better word. There was one person that he knew of that would have the power to control the great beasts.  It made him sick to think about it, but it had to be the truth.  How else could this have happened?  It had to be Lord Voldemort's doing, that was the logical way to explain it.  It just had to be.  No one else had the power to destroy villages at his whim.  No one else had the gall do cause mass destruction of innocent people.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius's comment brought Remus out of his reverie.  There werewolf blinked to refocus and saw immediately what Sirius had sworn at.  He added a few creative comments of his own to what his friend had stated.

"We were wrong, my friend.  Those aren't dragons, they're demons!"

A circle of ash covered cretins emerged from the forests surrounding the village.  They were lanky, dark as the night sky during the new moon, and emanated a sense of coldness and despair.  Spiked whips hung as tails, lashing back and forth like a cat's in readiness to strike.  Their hands were crooked claws, gleaming metallically in the sunlight.  Various horns stuck odd angles from misshapen skulls.

"Then what do we do now?"

"The only sane thing to do: RUN!"  Remus started off at full pace.  Once again, he had his curse to thank for giving him the physical finesse when he needed it.

"Where are we going?  We can't outrun them, you know."  Sirius was having a difficult time keeping up, even though after Azkaban he was still in good shape.

"This way," the werewolf veered off to another path.  "There should be a mining camp up here somewhere."

"How will that help us?"

"Places to hide until these things leave us alone."

Sirius glanced over his shoulder.  The dark creatures loped along behind them.  "They're still there."

Remus grabbed Sirius by the arm and pulled him into what looked to be a small cave hidden behind a fringe of weeds.  He motioned for silence as the demons drifted by.  Sirius was panting heavily like a dog.  Being an Animagus gave people characteristics akin to their animals.  Black was no exception to the rule.  He leaned against the cool rock, waiting for Remus to tell him it was all over and they could go home and he could see Andy again.  He breathed a sigh of relief as the last one passed the opening.

The last dark heap turned toward where the noise had come from.  It pointed a long, sinewy arm at the entrance.  Sparks flew from its fingertips toward where the two men crouched.  

"Run!" Remus hissed, leaping up from where he hid.  He dragged Sirius behind him, hoping the demons would not follow.  The curse missed the target it had been aimed at, instead hitting the ceiling above them.  A low rumbling roared in their ears.  Remus felt himself being thrown across the cavern. _'Funny,' he thought to himself.  __'I don't remember ever learning to fly.'  He landed with a dull thud._

It took him a few moments to reorient himself.  The throw had been extremely solid and rocks did not make the best landing surface.  He mentally checked for any places in his body that felt more painful than the rest.  His mind stopped at his left knee, finding that it twinged when he shifted it.  The rest of his body turned out to be pretty much in one piece, save for the occasional bruises and scrapes, but nothing was major.  He pulled himself to his feet and surveyed what had happened.

The demon's curse had missed the men completely and had crashed into the rock ceiling above them.  Boulders came tumbling down like a granite waterfall.  The entrance was obviously blockaded against them with a gigantic pile of rocks and debris.  Another body lay a few feet away from where Remus stood.

"Sirius?" he whispered.  There was no reply.

{Author's Note:  That's another cliffie, is it not?  I'm being evil and malicious again!  Woo-hoo!

Frogboy:  Shao-lin Kemp Chi-Sao is more of a empty handed, non weapon oriented style.  We do a whole bunch of kicks and punches, with a lot of forms and combinations of moves as well.  We do some weapons techniques, though not many.  We do some grappling and sparring, though not as much as forms and combos.  I hope that explains something.  I'm glad someone is impressed with my writing.  To be completely honest, I'm not even sure what the poem refers to yet.  I only wrote it with some idea, but it can be twisted into many.

Lily Potter:  Welcome back!  I am currently attempting to teach myself Pachabel's Canon in D.  I have played some Mozart, but I really disliked the book I had with Mozart in it.  I honestly don't remember if I played any Chopin yet.  I tend to forget things easily.

Anna Black:  I'm planning to do something like that.  I'm obsessed with the Princess Bride, so naturally I will.  No, its not odd.  I was attempting to air play most of the pieces in the last book I got on the way home from the mall.  My boyfriend and I have snogged through a handful of movies so far, though not many, unfortunately.

Atheis Gainsborough:  Yes, she will eventually, maybe at Christmas.  I had been planning a reunion with Ben since the first story, so it had to happened somewhere.  This chapter should be a bit of explanation with Sirius and Remus.

Dy:  I've been playing 6 ½ years.  Right now, I gave up on a teacher and am teaching myself.  The site was http://www.sheetmusicarchive.net/index.cfm.  It had some Chopin, but none had names, only numbers.

Sora G. Silverwind:  You were supposed to feel bad.  I'll check on the 'Andalucia' suite thing.  Now you've got me wondering what you're talking about.

VMorticia: Go ahead, hurt the pigeons!  Sounds like fun!  And I know I have problems, but thank you for reconfirming that fact.

Shasa Perino: Please do not kill me, I am actually enjoying life very much at the moment.  And yes, I am brilliant.  J

Iggie:  And another person calls me brilliant, once again!  Woo-hoo!  I'm glad this cheers you up and keeps you from getting too overly depressed.

Peace, Love, and Christmas Cookies, Nataly Ravenlock}


	9. Could Have Been Better

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this except for the plot, Andromeda McGee, and Wyvern, plus a few random Death Eaters whom of which are all figments of my imagination.}

**Chapter 9**

**Could Have Been Better**

_**Sound the bugle now/ Play  it just for me/ As the seasons change/ Remember how I used to be/ Now I can't go on/ I can't even start/ I've got nothing left/ Just an empty heart "Sound the Bugle" Bryan Adams, from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Soundtrack (Which is much better than the actual movie, in my opinion)**_

Andy felt the warm summer sun shine through an open window onto her face.  She shifted her neck slightly to remove the glare from her eyes.  She wished she could get up and dance.  Moving her neck was an event that she could celebrate.  There was nothing she could do due to the small fact that the rest of her body, other than her toes and fingers, was still paralyzed.

A spring was digging itself into her left shoulder blade.  There was nothing she could about that either.  Even after having regained her soul the week before, it had decided to take its own damn sweet time reconnecting itself with her body.  That did nothing to improve her disposition.

Madame Pomfrey was having her nerves grated on by her only patient.  The Mediwitch preferred to devote her time away from Andy's complaining and cursing.  At least the girl was not cursing her.  Andy chose to curse her own incompetence instead.  She knew the nurse was working her hardest to restore her to her own vigorous self.  The Mediwitch did not like having to wait hand and foot on an invalid.  Madame Pomfrey wished her patient would somehow miraculously heal, but knew in her heart that it would never happen.  Regrowing a soul was tough business and there was nothing she could do to speed up the process despite all her efforts.

Dumbledore was worried.  Sirius and Remus had not contacted him even after two days of being sent to the Transylvanian Alps.  That was not a good sign.  They should know better than that.  They should have at least owled or Floo-ed him to say that they had gotten there safely and everything was alright.  He feared for the worse.  Neither man was forgetful.  Remus had an especially good memory.  He would have known better than to let his Head Master wait like this for an answer.  People really did begin to frustrate him after a while.  He stood up from behind his large desk and walked out of his office.  Walking always did help to clear his mind.

He paced restlessly through the school, finding new things to worry about with each step.  It didn't help like it usually did.  He sadly shook his long beard.  Why did the world have to be so difficult?  He glanced to where he had ended up: outside the infirmary.  If he was correct, and he most always was, Andromeda was still there recovering from her injuries.  Dumbledore decided to enter.  Maybe talking with his newest Potions Mistress would help.  She tended to bring new incites into people's lives.

Andy was still laying on the bed muttering to herself.  The Head Master could not make out what she was saying but determined it to be none of his business.  "Good afternoon, Andromeda."

Her necked turned slowly in his direction so that she could make awkward direct eye connect.  "Head Master.  What brings you to see me?"

He sat down in one of the chairs nearby.  Poppy had placed a few nearby for her once frequent visitors of Misters Black and Lupin.  "Nothing more than the need for human companionship, my dear girl.  Are you feeling any better?"

"Slightly.  I can move my right elbow," she said proudly.  For her it was humongous achievement.

"That's wonderful, simply stunning that you are healing so fast."

"You call this fast?"

"When a soul is reconnected, it may take months or a year before everything is fully regained."

"I don't have months or a year.  I need to be fully functional by September 1st."

"Have you considered a wheelchair or maybe crutches?"

"Sir, I have fully considered all my options and most of them require at least the use of my upper limbs, which I do not have yet.  I refuse to have a nurse maid or someone who has to take constant care of me after I leave this room."

"May I ask why?"

"It's degrading.  I'm not an invalid.  I never will be one.  They'll learn never to mess with Andromeda Josephine McGee again after I'm through with them."

"Revenge will get you no where in life, my dear."

"I know, but it keeps my mind occupied while I lay here with nothing to do."

"Is you lesson plan completed?"

Andy grinned.  "Sir, I finished it within the first week of break.  I have the first month done and the rest is outlined basically.  I figured that it would be easier to get it over with then in case something like this happened."

Dumbledore raised a white eyebrow.  "You know this was going to happen?"

"No, but I figured I had a good chance of being injured, especially with my luck, so that's why I wrote it then instead of now.  I almost wish I hadn't.  It would give me something to do…" she trailed off.

An owl swooped through the open infirmary window and dropped a letter on the Head Master's lap.  It perched, cooing softly, on the bedpost.  Dumbledore opened the letter cautiously.

_"Dear Head Master Albus Dumbledore,_

_            I hope this letter finds you well, as it does not with us.  You had informed us earlier this week of that two men were being sent to __Romania__ to research the von Fleckingar family.  The village in which the von Fleckingars had once resided in is one of those that we regularly ward against the dragons.  We checked it this morning to find the town deserted and burned down, most likely by renegade dragons.  There were no bodies found.  My men and I also located a path of two sets of foot prints leading to a small cave in which there was a cave in.  I believe that these may have been the men that you sent, given the tracks are fresher that all the others.  We are not certain of the fate of the men that you sent, but believe that they are part of the dead.  I am sorry to be the one to inform you of this._

_            Sincerely,_

_            Charlie Weasley_

_                        Member of the Dragon Protection Agency, Romanian Branch"_

Dumbledore was shocked.  He had not suspected anything of this magnitude to happen.  It couldn't be true.  Sirius and Remus could not be dead.  He still needed them.

"What is it, sir?" Andy spoke softly.  She could tell that something was wrong from the expression on Dumbledore's face.  His blue eyes had lost their familiar sparkle.

The Head Master raised his eyes from the paper to met Andy's gaze.  "It seems that Sirius and Remus might be dead."

"Are you certain?"

"The letter is from an old student of mine, whom I trust.  He works with dragons in Romania and was checking the village that Sirius and Remus were sent to.  The village had been burned down, most likely by the dragons and no signs of the two men remained except for a few tracks.  The tracks only led to a cave-in."

Andy's jaw dropped.  "It can't be true!  They can't be dead!  They just can't be!"

"I believe it is so.  We must face the facts of life."

"I'm not going to.  They aren't dead until I see both bodies no longer breathing."

"That's fine philosophy, but there is a chance that they were burned to death and no parts remain."

"Then I stand true to my beliefs and they are not dead yet."

Dumbledore smiled.  He knew he could not change her beliefs.  It was probably better that she had been there when he had gotten the news than him have been alone.  Andromeda always had been the eternal optimist.  He supposed he should be thankful.  "Thank you, my dear girl.  I shall change my perspective.  It makes things a little less depressing, though they still are considered missing."

"I know, sir, that they will be until they are found, but I will try to keep my hopes up."

"I know you will.  I must deliver the news that the village had been attacked to the Minister.  Have a pleasant afternoon."  The Head Master walked out the door.

Andy let the sobs of grief roll through her.  They couldn't be dead!  Not now, when she still needed them the most.  Other people needed them too!  Who else would young Harry turn to?  Who else would be there to brighten people's days?  No one!  She wished she could run away and hide from the world.  She needed to be alone.  She dreamed herself running through the halls, back to her very room.  The door was locked seventeen different ways with unbreakable spells that few could get through, though she did not know how she knew them to begin with.  She lay down on the bed and began to sob in mourning for her two lost friends.

Madame Pomfrey walked into the main room of the infirmary to give Andromeda her afternoon medications.  She gasped, seeing the bed empty for the first time since July.  The nurse searched the room carefully, finding no trace of the girl save for a few lost hairs.  Andy was just not there.  That was the only way she could put it.  She Floo-ed the Head Master's office.  "Albus, Andromeda has disappeared!"

Dumbledore's brow furrowed.  "She has?"

"Yes, she has!" Madame Pomfrey said indignantly.  "I went to check on her to give her the afternoon medications and she was not there nor anywhere else in my infirmary."

"I shall check the rest of the castle; she should not have gone very far."

"Especially in her condition!" the nurse huffed.  "Moving makes it worse!"

"I am certain it does, Poppy.  I shall get back to you right away as to if I find her or not."

The Mediwitch's head exited the fireplace, leaving Dumbledore alone once more.  He summoned a locator crystal from a shelf and held it in his hand.  "Show me Andromeda McGee."  It blurred a dusty blue before showing a picture of Andy face down on her bed, being racked with sobs.  "Thank you."  It changed back to its normal black color.  He set it down before explaining to the nurse that Andromeda had somehow ended up back in her own rooms.  Madame Pomfrey seemed rather pleased that her patient had finally gotten some sense into her and left her infirmary.

Dumbledore supposed that he should go check on her.  He wandered slowly down to the dungeon rooms and stared at the locked door, debating the best way to handle the precarious situation.  He could sense many spells preventing entry.

"You won't have any luck getting in," a small voice said from the wood.

"She's locked it numerous times with more spells than I'll even know."

The Head Master smiled politely at the picture hanging near the door.  Six creatures frolicked playfully around a meadow: a wolf, a rat, a dog, a stag, a lynx, and a hawk.  He knew them all quite well and had not been surprised when Andy had located the picture for her rooms.  "Are you certain?"

"She told us to make sure no one comes in unless she said so," the hawk chirped fiercely.

"And we aren't about to let anyone do so."

"Even if the person in question is the Head Master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" Dumbledore inquired.

"You could be the Minister of Magic or the bloody Pope for all we care, but you aren't coming in here."

"Very well then, I bid you all adieu.  Thank you for you assistance."  He had realized that it would be hopeless to try to force his way into the rooms.  Andromeda would most definitely not like that, and judging by what he could sense, the spells that protected her rooms were extremely strong and difficult to break without the maker's consent.  He would attempt it later if she chose not to come out of her hiding place.  He hoped it wouldn't be too longer.  They would need her when the students came.

Andy had fled to her rooms after hearing the news.  It had shocked her to hear that her best friends might be dead or, worse in her opinion, missing.  She wasn't certain how exactly she had succeeded in being able to move after still being partially paralyzed.  It must have been the despair of the news that had shocked her system into cooperating with her again.

She sat up in realization of what had actually happen.  She raised her hand in front of her face and twisted the fingers to make sure all of them moved.  Her arm was flexed.  It, too, was able to move.  She precariously set a foot on the floor and placed her weight over it, seeing that it could now hold her up.  The other one was lowered beside it.  Andy stood up, wobbling slightly.  She took a step forward, then another.

"I did it!" she whispered.  Her voice echoed in the near empty room.  "I did it!  I can move!"  It sounded like something overly simple to be proud of, but for anyone cooped up in a bed for weeks at a time, it was an amazing achievement.  She skipped around the room, spinning in circle just because she could.  If only Sirius and Remus could see her now…

Andy collapsed in chair.  That brought reality crashing back onto her.  Sirius and Remus…She didn't know what to think.  They might dead.  They may be still alive, but either way they were missing.  She wished there was something that she could do, but there was nothing that she could think of.  She didn't even remember where they had gone to begin with.

Quiet laughter escaped her lips.  No, she would definitely not be much of a help to anyone.  It was hopeless, absolutely hopeless.  Her laughter dissolved back to sobs.  She buried her face in her hands, letting tears drip down her cheeks.  There was nothing she could do.

There was nothing that she wanted to do.  She wanted to help, but she felt weak and defenseless from her still ongoing recovery.  In fact, she felt terrible.  It was a listless agony that continued growing on her.  She couldn't stop it.  Nothing could.  Sirius or Remus might have been able to, but they were lost.  Andy let her mind drift to its mindless eddies that it had traced for the past few weeks.

She was helpless.  She couldn't think straight, couldn't walk straight.  Her emotions were jumbled beyond any coherent recognition.  She wanted to die, to leave this world forever.  She knew she couldn't.  Other people still needed her.  It was the thought that counted.  If she died, everything would go away and she could be in peace.  She wouldn't have to worry about being whole again or whether Sirius and Remus would return from where ever they were.  She wouldn't have to worry if she would survive another day in this new life she had made for herself.

No, she couldn't!  No blade would be sharp enough to ease her pain.  No cliff high enough to stop the suffering.  It wouldn't work.  It couldn't work.  Damn it!  May all the gods and their minions be damned to an eternal hell of anguish and pain!

There was no understanding that she could bring herself to bear from all of this.  People enjoyed ruining their lives, didn't they?  It seemed that sooner or later they would kill her and everything would be all for the better.  There was going to be a long time before that happening occurred.  The world had yet to see the end of Andromeda McGee.

{Author's Note:  My life has been simply awesome in the past week.  For Christmas, my parental units gave me a black and silver Gateway Pentium 4 with flat screen, CD burner, and DVD player.  That is what this chapter was written on.  Secondly, I've seen The Two Towers twice so far, the first time in full costume as Samwise Gamgee.  We also had the other three hobbits, an elf, and a Nazgul, so it was great!  And lastly, we finally figured out which musical we're doing this year.  Get this, we got the rights to Les Misèrables!  LES MISÉRABLES!  Woo-hoo!  I'm psyched!  Just out of curiosity, why does everyone assume that I am evil enough to have killed off Sirius Black?

Shasa Perino:  See above comment about Sirius.  And yes, Christmas Cookies.

Frogboy:  Can you tell I like Cliffies?  I'm not sure exactly, but I think they are pretty close.  Yeah!  Power to the Martial Artists!

Anna Black:  I've seen it twice so far.  LotR rocked!  Um, I don't think so.  If there were any aspects of Mulan in that, it was not what I was thinking.  I didn't even realize it.  As for the cat thing, I didn't think about that either.  It wasn't meant to be akin to one of your scenes.  Its all pure coincidence.  Yes, I know I have a few errors.  I fixed a couple, but yes I do spend more time snogging instead of proofing…

VMorticia:  Understandable.

Aly: Who said I killed Sirius?  Give me credit.  I'm not that evil!

Atheis Gainsborough:  I can leave it there and I just did.  Once again, who said I killed him?  Damn…You people seem to think I'm that evil!  Go ahead, hurt me.  I'd love to see someone try.

Sora G. Silverwind:  Snape is coming back in the next chapter.  He will play a major role from now one.  I just had to build up to it.  My readers miss me anyways with all the things that I do.  But I shall probably look for it anyways.

Peace, Love, and Furry Hobbit Feet, Nataly Ravenlock}


	10. Grand Entrance

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few random Death Eaters whom of which are all parts of my twisted imagination.}

**Chapter 10**

**Grand Entrance**

_**The ignorant man wonders.  The wise man asks.  William Shakespeare**_

Severus Snape locked the door to his house in the small Muggle development.  It was the last day he would ever spend in that house until next summer.  It had been a quiet season.  He was glad of that.  He didn't like excitement.  The only major event had been the attack on Diagon Alley in early July.  A brief thought of Andromeda McGee flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed it.  She had her own problems that were not of his concern.

He took one last look around to make certain that everything was set before he apparated back to the outskirts of Hogwarts.  Everything he needed was in the castle, having been Floo-ed there earlier in the day.  Snape walked down the path leading to the school and billowed through the ornate doors leading inside.  Dumbledore was waiting for him.

"Head Master," the younger man's voice was carefully kept devoid of any emotion.

"Welcome back, Severus.  I need to speak with you, in my office, if you will."

"Certainly."  Snape knew that this could not be a good thing.  Dumbledore rarely waited for people.  He wondered briefly what circumstances had brewed that would either require his expertise in potions or general knowledge.

The Head Master settled himself in the chair behind the large desk.  "I believe you remember Miss McGee's conundrums earlier this summer?"

Snape narrowed his eyes.  Why was everything always about Andy?  "I do."

"It seems that she somehow succeeded in self healing herself and then proceeded in locking herself in her rooms for the past week and a half."

"Any ideas on how she did it?"

Dumbledore smiled sadly.  "That brings me to the point I wished to discuss with you.  When this occurred, I had received a letter from Romania.  I had just sent both Sirius Black and Remus Lupin to that country in order to continue researching on a project.  The letter stated that both men might be dead."

The Slytherin's brow furrowed.  "Both men, dead?"

"It is so believed.  Now the village in question was attacked by something, probably dragons."  Dumbledore paused expectantly, knowing very well Snape's thought process.

"You wish to know if it was Voldemort's doing."

"Yes, that is my question.  I thought you might have some insight on this incident."

"I am afraid I do not.  My 'Master' does not tell everyone everything.  He prefers to keep his events secret from those who do not need to know about them.  I can't help you with whether or not the blame was his."

The Head Master nodded gravely.  "I understand.  You do all that you are able to."

"Anything else that you need?"

"No, that is all.  You may go.  There are things that need to get done before the semester begins."

Snape stood, inclining his head slightly at the Head Master before exiting the room.  He had not heard of any attack on a small Romanian village, but he guessed that it probably had been Voldemort's creatures that had done it.  He did not doubt that his 'Master' had the capabilities to destroy villages.  In fact his master could probably take over the entire world if he attempted it.  Yes, there would be grand losses if he did, but he could probably do a large amount of damage in the process.  Those weren't the thoughts that he needed to be thinking right now.  

He slammed the door to his rooms shut.  It crashed with a hollow, unsatisfying bang.  He kicked it just because he could.  His chair sat in the same spot it had for the past few months.  He collapsed into it, mentally beating himself for not being able to stop the attack.  A deep throbbing beat in time with his anger.  It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't his mind's imagination.  It came from down the hall: Andy's room.  It was some sort of music or so he hoped.

Snape pulled himself out of the chair.  He would go complain to her that it was too loud.  It would take out some of his aggression.  Andy's door was still locked.  He twisted the knob, finding that it was stuck shut.

"It's locked, you know," an insolent voice snapped from the painting on the door.

The Slytherin looked down at the figures.  He recognized most of them.  The dog was an exact replica of Black's animagus form.  That meant the wolf was Lupin, the stag was James Potter, and the rat had to be the illustrious Peter Pettigrew, now deceased.  He was not certain about the other two creatures.  It figured that she would have that picture hanging by her rooms.  "I realized that.  She's not allowing anyone entrance?"

"No one at all, you large-nosed, greasy prat," the stag spoke.

 "Go rot in hell!"

"Sorry, I'm stuck here," the creature returned.

"Prongs, don't taunt him.  It's not nice," the hawk chirped from a perch on a branch.

"But, Red, it's fun!"

"I don't care if its fun, it's still not nice.  Don't do it.  It's not often Andy has a man at her door, wanting to see her.  I mean with a little bit of fixing he could be nice looking."

The cat opened one yellow eye.  "He needs a hair cut, but you're right, Red.  He's not as bad as some I've seen.  That one guy…Ick!  Now he was terrible!"

"You mean the one with the beer belly and Coke Bottle glasses who wore a pocket protector?"

"Yeah, him.  He was horrible.  This one isn't too bad compared to him," the cat twisted her head up at him.  "I suppose you want to talk with Andy?"

"I was hoping so, yes," Snape answered coldly.  These creatures were grating his nerves.

"Alright, we can do that.  Red, you want to go?  She'll listen to you.  Tell her that there's a hot guy standing outside her door."  The cat turned back to Snape as the hawk flew off.  "I know it's a bit exaggerated, but it might get her out.  She's been locked in there for the past week and a half."

The hawk glided back into the scene.  "She says she'll consider it.  I give her less than a minute before she shows up."

The creature's prediction had been correct as the door squeaked open to reveal Andy's tousled head.  She blinked owlishly at the man standing there.  "What the hell do you want?"  Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence.  She sounded dull and lifeless, nothing like the vibrant woman he knew before.

"I was wondering if you would have the decency to turn down whatever abomination that you are listening to."

She looked at him, considering it for a moment.  "No."

"No?"  It was in 'how dare you say 'no' to Severus Snape.'

"Definitely not.  It's staying exactly where it is."  She went to close the door, but Snape stuck his foot in the way.  Andy attempted to close it again, despite that his foot was still there.  "Go away!"

"McGee."

"What?" she spoke as she walked away from the door, fully realizing that Snape was not going to let her close it.

Snape gently pushed open the door, finding no resistance.  He shut it as soon as he was fully in the room and grabbed her by the wrist.  "I don't know what they did to you, McGee, but it has to stop."

She refused to speak and tugged to get away.  A low growl escaped her throat.

The Slytherin sighed.  This was going to take a long while.  He reached down and scooped her up in his arms.  Placing her on the couch, he turned the volume knob all the way down.  He glanced over his shoulder to check that she was still there.  Andy hadn't moved though a single tear dripped down her cheek.  He sat down next to her and wiped the tear off her face.

"Leave me alone," she hissed as she struggled to get away from the arm he had placed around her.

"I am afraid I cannot do that.  School starts in three days.  The students will arrive and expect you to teach them Potions.  Right now, you are a complete wreck.  We need to fix that."  He figured that she was physically sound, just mentally unstable.  She looked clean, at least.  He figured she probably attempted to drown herself at least once a day.  The House elves kept close tabs on the water ways so that no person would kill themselves in such a matter.

"There is nothing to fix.  I'm fine."

"McGee, you are not fine," he fell into the voice that was normally reserved for small children and mental incompetents.

"I don't care if I am fine or not, just get your fucking hands off me!"

He tightened his grip as she squirmed to find a way out.  "Listen to me, McGee.  You are extremely depressed from hearing of your friends' deaths, if they are dead at all.  You cannot teach the student if you are that way.  It is not healthy for them or you."

"Fuck you."  She stopped struggling and sat perfectly still.  Maybe if she behaved, he would let her go.

"No, thank you.  I would prefer not to.  Now tell me something, McGee, how many years were you in Azkaban?"

"Sixteen," she answered quietly.

"Very good, you do remember."

"I remember it all quite well, Severus Snape.  You do not need to remind of them."

"Oh, I believe I do.  That means you spend sixteen years without Black or Lupin."

"So what?"

"You spent sixteen years without them, why are you having problems surviving without them now?"

"Because I know them now!"

He patted her lightly on the shoulder with the hand that protectively held her.  "Maybe you do, maybe, you don't.  Think about it, McGee, how much can a person change in sixteen years?  I'll even answer that for you.  A person can change a whole lot.  They can do a complete turnaround.  So did you really know them?"

"They didn't change!  Sirius Black and Remus Lupin do not change!"

"I think they did.  Sirius was on the run for at least two years, if not more after he escaped.  He turned into a common thief."  Or so he hoped, but it did sound good.

"No, he didn't!"

"How do you know?"

Andy paused, thinking.  How did she know her friend would not resort to common thievery to survive?  "It was to survive!"

"He could have used his infinite wisdom to find ways of surviving."

"Have you ever tried to survive when people are chasing after you, trying to kill you?"

"Actually I have.  I survived just fine without resorting to thievery."

Her eyes narrowed.  "I'm sure you did."  It was laced with sarcasm.

"And Lupin…How could we forget the werewolf, hiding from society because of his curse?  He spent the last sixteen years, give or take a few random jaunts into society, locked away as a hermit.  Do you know much being a hermit changes people?"

Andy's head dropped to her chest before she answered, "A lot?"

"Yes, a lot.  People get strange ideas, learn occult things.  Do you know why Lupin was made the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor?"

"Because he is a Dark Creature?"

"You almost have it.  Not only is he a Dark Creature, but he is a practitioner of the Dark Arts."  This Snape knew for certain.  Lupin did practice some spells, charms, and curses dealing with the Dark Arts.  They were not necessarily used in Dark reasons, but they were dark none the less.

"He is?"

"Yes, he is.  Who better to hire than one with a secret that needs to be kept, but knows what need to be taught?"

"You're lying!"

"No, I am not lying to you, McGee.  I would not lie to you."  Stretch the truth maybe, but never lie…

"Yes, you would."

"McGee, have I ever lied to you?"

"No, but…"

"Exactly."  Snape knew that the barbs he had set were sinking in.  "So think about what I've said to you.  Think about Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.  Yes, it is perfectly normal to mourn for them, but not for obtuse amounts of time.  I'd suggest you snap out of it if you want to keep your life and your job."  He stood up, letting her go.

Andy stayed on the couch, staring straight ahead.  Was what Snape had said true?  Could he be right, that Sirius and Remus were different from when she had known them?  Of course they would be, but how different was the question?  Did they still like her or were they humoring her because of her mental instability?  She looked up to ask Snape, but he had already disappeared.

Snape stalked back to his rooms, feeling not at all better than he had before.  He knew he shouldn't have done that to Andy, but something needed to be done about her state of mind.  She had always been precariously close to the edge, but now she was in imminent danger of falling off.  He hadn't lied too much, only stretched the truth slightly to fit his ideas of what had happened.  Andy would believe him.  She was a person like that, willing to trust what people said without questioning them.  He only hoped it would snap her out of whatever doldrums she was living in.  They needed Andy to teach, and to fight.

{Author's Note:  And so we have the return of everyone's favorite Slytherin, Severus Snape!  Woo-hoo!  For all of you Snape fanatics, he is most definitely here to stay from now on, especially with all I have planned.  ::laughs evilly::  I told one of my friends what I was going to do and she called me evil.  Oh, yes, I'm very evil.  My boyfriend even called me evil.  Just a note, he did proof the first two pages of this chapter since that was all I had written when he decided to play with my computer.  Mind you, he has not read any of my stories up to that point, but they were proofed!  Ha!  So there!  I swear the drama teacher has something against me.  She cast my boyfriend and me as brother and sister in Les Miz.  He's the Bishop; I'm the Bishop's sister.  If we can't be married, then we're forced to be related.  Mind you, we're also factory workers, beggars, I'm a thief and he's a student and I can't spell the names of either of them.  It's going to be awesome!

Frogboy:  You wanted to know what Shaolin Kempo Chi-Sao Karate was.  I know I attempted to explain it earlier, but I found a better explanation.  I was reading a book written by a man named Fred Villari, who used to run the schools in which I train before my current Master took over, and I found this explanation.  It stated that, and I quote, "It is based on the movements of five animals and is a fighting method consisting of extremely powerful techniques for delivering blows and punches."

I apologize for not responding to any of the other comments and reviews.  My computer, for some odd, unknown reason, will not let me access the reviews I have thankfully received for this story.  So, no, I am not ignoring you guys, I appreciate all the positive support I get from you guys, but AOL sucks, so…Hopefully I will get back to you guys with responses eventually, but if you have any comments, concerns, questions, threats, et cetera, feel free to e-mail me at: greenchipmunk313@yahoo.com.  Thanks!

Peace, Love, and Hot and Sour Soup, Nataly Ravenlock}


	11. Snapping Out OF It

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter world was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for the characters of Andromeda McGee, Wyvern, and a few random Death Eaters that are all figments of my twisted imagination and the plot.}

**Chapter 11**

**Snapping Out Of It**

_**So let's bring on the men/ And let the fun begin/ A little touch of sin/ Can't wait another minute/ Step this way/ It's time for us to play/ We may never walk this way again/ So let's waste no more time/ Bring on the men!  Bring On The Men, Jekyll &Hyde: The Musical**_

Andy fell asleep on the couch soon after Snape left.  Maybe he had been right.  Maybe she didn't need to do this.  Maybe she could still live without them.  She had lived without Sirius and Remus for the years she had been imprisoned in Azkaban.  Then again, she had no idea that they even existed when she was in Azkaban.  But still, she had existed without them being there, and that was the point she wished to make.

The sun woke her groggily the next morning.  She blinked, noticing that something was different.  Not thinking about what it was, she wandered slowly into the bathroom and washed her face.  As she toweled it dry, she gazed into the mirror.  'Gee, I look like crap,' she thought to herself.  Her cheekbones stood out sharply against her skin, pale from the lack of sunlight.  Her eyes were deeply hollowed and her hair was going at least seventeen different directions that she did not want it to.  "Yes, I definitely look like crap," she repeated, this time out loud.

She found a brush nearby and began to detangle her unruly locks.  Despite anything she did, they still decided to misbehave.  Locating her wand, which ended up being in a dark corner under her bed, she cast a quick spell to charm her hair into compliance.  A bit of make-up hid the dark circles under her eyes.  "Much better."

It was then realized that her robes were rumbled, having obviously seen much better days.  Grumbling about her lack of foresight, she rummaged through her wardrobe.  Black robes, more black robes, another set of black robes, dress robes, little black dress, even more black robes…Wait a second!  She perked up, realizing what she had found.  Andy pulled out what could only be called a 'little black dress.'  It was a simple cut, but it would do for now.  She pulled it on and took a look in the full length mirror.  "This is a definite improvement.  I no longer look like crap, though I do need shoes."  A pair of matching black sandals was found.  She had gotten them earlier in the summer to replace the brown ones Severus had given her, since they had finally worn out.  Grabbing her handbag and her wand, she stepped out of her room.

Andy finally realized what was different.  She no longer felt completely miserable over losing her best friends.  The ache was still there, but she could learn to live without them.  There was a hope that they could be alive.  She would miss them, yes, but she would not let that dominate her entire existence.  She walked down the empty halls of Hogwarts, finding no one.

Snape paced his new classroom.  It was almost the way he wanted it.  There were enough frightening things in jars and bottles that could be placed around the room.  Remus had thoughtfully left all the cages and tanks, though without the fearsome creatures in them.  They would be filled soon enough.  He glanced out the window.  It was a rather nice view of the Forbidden Forest.  He saw someone walking the path towards Hogsmeade and recognized the honey blonde hair.  So Andy had decided to come out of her cave at last.  It had certainly taken her long enough to do so.  At least she had finished her moping and would actually be useful for awhile until she found something else to stew over.  God forbid that would ever happen again…  She disappeared as the path curved out of his view.

Andy forced herself to walk with her head held high.  She was not in the best of moods, but she would fake it for now.  There were few things she to pick up before the semester began.  The potion ingredients had yet to be retrieved from Mr. Valerian's shop.   There were still some things left at the cabin that she might need in the future.  That would be her first stop: Remus's cabin.

The cabin was empty.  Remus had locked it by the same spell he had used over seventeen years ago, so it is simple to get into.  Not wanting to stay, she quickly went to the basement and gathered her belongings.  She knew she could come back anytime, but it would be nice to have the necessities she needed on hand.  Unused potion ingredients were placed in their box along with various diaries and tomes of recipes.  That would last her awhile, especially given how difficult it was to decipher most of it.  She stuffed any clothing that was there into a battered suitcase and carted both things up the stairs.  They were easily Floo-ed back to Hogwarts.  With a flick of her wand, she recast the locking spell and Apparated to Diagon Alley.

Herds of people trounced through the streets.  Andy reminded herself that the term would be beginning in a few days time.  She made a quick stop at Gringotts for the meager amount of money she had left.  There would be more once the term started. 

Valerian's Apothecary was mostly deserted save for only a few people.  Andy approached the counter cautiously.

"Andromeda, my dear, how are you?" Mr. Valerian's face lit up with a wide smile as he saw her.

"I'm wonderful, Jonas.  Do you have the ingredients that I requested?"

"Of course I do!  You wouldn't think that I would ever let one of my best customers down, would you?"

"Not at all," she replied reassuringly.

"Just give me a moment to locate them…" he pulled a large brown package off of a high shelf behind his counter.  "Here you go."

"How much do I owe you?"

He grinned wider.  "Nothing at all, my dear.  After what you did last month, you deserve something."

"I didn't do much."

"You're too modest, Andromeda.  I watched you.  It isn't any one who will sacrifice themselves knowing very well that they could be killed in a fray like that."

Andy gulped.  Why did he have to remind her?  "It took me the last month or so to recover from it."

"Yes, but you did play your part, so these are on me."

"Thank you, Jonas.  I appreciate it."  She was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  If he wanted to give the ingredients to her then she would take them willingly.  She didn't have much money to spend anyways.  She flashed him a quick, thankful smile as she exited the shop with the bundle tucked under arm.

Andy wandered through the streets, not wanting to return to Hogwarts.  She needed to be out more, be with people a bit, to get used to them again.  She had been away from civilization for too long.  She ducked into Flourish and Blotts, hoping to find some of the latest news on what was happening in the world.  It would be the easiest place to get information quickly.  She went first to the Potions section, hoping there would be something new.  She picked a book at random and flipped through the pages.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Arthur Weasley," a blonde haired man snapped caustically.

"Lucius, how pleasant to see you," Arthur replied coldly.

"I suppose your work is going well?" Lucius glanced down at the cauldron Ginny Weasley was carrying that was filled with battered, used books.

Arthur went red and blustery in the face, almost turning the same shade of his hair.

Andy looked up from the book and set it absentmindedly back on the shelf.  That did not sound good.  Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley together in the same room was definitely not a good thing, especially if she judged the expressions on the bystanders' faces.  There was only one thing she could do if a fight could be prevented.

"Lucius, how surprising to see you here!" Andy cooed, taking him by the elbow and leading him away from the Weasley clan.  She glanced back over her shoulder with a wink towards Ginny.  She knew the girl would understand what she was doing.

Lucius Malfoy was caught unaware by the strange woman who had led him away from picking a fight with the Weasleys.  Though it would have been an entertaining thing to do, he supposed finding an attractive woman would have to do for now.  "I do not believe we have formally met before.  Do I know you?"  He kept his voice neutral as he surveyed the woman.  She was shorter than he usually liked them, with honey blonde hair and a slender figure.  Her eyes were dark and mysterious.  Maybe this could get interesting…

"You may have heard of me before.  I am Andromeda McGee, the current Potions Mistress at Hogwarts."

Yes, he had heard of her.  Draco had kept him informed.  She had taught most of last year.  His son had said that she was highly skilled in her art and very dangerous as well.  Lord Voldemort had warned him to watch out for her.  His Master had plans for her.  Maybe this would be more interesting than he had originally thought.  "Ah, yes, Draco told me about you.  I am Lucius Malfoy."

"It's a pleasure to finally be able to meet you.  I suppose your son would have told you about me.  He's one of my best students."

"I would not expect anything less from him than the best."

Andy nodded carefully.  She would have to hold her ground.  "Severus said that you were an excellent potions brewer yourself.  He must have inherited it from you."

Lucius raised his eyebrows slightly at the mention of Severus Snape.  So they were on a first name basis… "I practice the art."

"That's all any of us can do: practice it and improve it."

"Yet from what I have heard, you seem to be one of the best."

"Maybe.  I have never been one to compare myself with others."

"You are on par with Severus, who is one of the best, so that would make you one of the best as well," he kept his voice smooth and laced with honey, attempting more to seduce her than just chatting.

"If that is how you wish to put it, then, yes, I might be.  So if you were worried about my qualifications that would be my only explanation," Andy could tell by his tone what he was attempting to do.  She knew better than to fall for this man, as handsome as he might be.  Lucius Malfoy was pure evil.

"I am not at all worried about how well you are qualified in Potions.  I simply wanted to know if what I had heard was true."

"Ah, then yes, it most likely is, depending on what you have heard."

Lucius looked at the large clock in the center of the alley, realizing that he had an appointment in a few minute's time.  It was rather unfortunate that he would have to cut the conversation short.  "I'm afraid I must be off."  He took her hand and kissed it lightly.  "It was a pleasure meeting you."  He turned and walked away, thankful to be rid of her before she did anything or worse, if he did anything to her.  He considered asking his Master if he could have her when he was finished with her.

Andy watched the tall platinum blonde disappear into a shop before allowing herself to laugh.  She was rather proud of herself for being able to make the man uncomfortable.  He had taken it better than she had expected him to.  He hadn't blown up at her or cursed her or did something gruesome to her.  That had been extremely surprising.  She had only done it to save the Weasleys.  Severus had warned her about Lucius Malfoy.  He had said that Malfoy was as evil as they come and then some.  He was highly immersed in the Dark Arts and the Death Eaters.  That was also where she had learned that he, too, had an interest in potions, though his was more toward the illegal portion of them.  She wandered the streets hoping to run into the Weasleys. 

"Andy!" Ginny called exuberantly from a bench outside a robe shop.

"Hello, Virginia.  Do you mind if I sit for a moment?"

The girl shook her head.  She had wanted to talk with Andy since July, especially after the attack.  She still did not understand why the professor always asked permission before doing something.  It must be just an odd quirk, she decided.  "Go right ahead.  No one else is sitting there."

Andy sat down on the bench, placing her package of potions ingredients on her lap.  "That's much better.   I forgot what I ordered, but this definitely is not all dried ingredients."

Ginny smiled.  Andy obviously hadn't been too badly harmed in the attack if her sense of humor was still functioning.  "I wanted to thank you for what you did with Mr. Malfoy.  I know Dad wouldn't admit to almost getting in a fight with him again, much less be gracious about not being able to hit him."

"It was no problem.  I know that the two of them do not get along very well."

Ginny snorted.  "That's an understatement."

"I was just at the right place at the right time.  It's an odd habit I have, though sometimes it works in opposing ways."

"It worked this time."                                                                      

"Yes, I suppose it did."  The head of the Weasley family appeared from inside the shop.  Andy stood up.  "I should get going.  I don't want to infringe on your shopping time."

"We're almost done."

"Ginny!  We're finished in here," Arthur Weasley called to his daughter.  He then noticed Andy standing next to her.  His eyes narrowed as he recognized her as the woman who had taken Malfoy away before he had gotten a clean shot at him.

"Alright, Dad."  She noticed her father's expression.  "Oh, yeah, Dad, this is Andromeda McGee, our new Potions Mistress.  Andy, this is my father, Arthur Weasley."

Arthur's expression changed to a slightly calmer one, though not by much.  So this was the new professor that Ginny kept talking about.  "Pleased to meet you."

"Virginia's told me a lot about you.  She said that you enjoy studying Muggles."  Andy had figured that the man would assume she was a friend of Malfoy and not be too thrilled to see her chatting with his daughter and therefore, it would be best to breach the ice with a topic the man was comfortable discussing.

His face brightened as she had guessed it would.  "Oh, yes, I find them simply fascinating.  It's amazing, really, how they manage to survive without being able to use magic and be forced to use things like their eclectricity instead."

"You mean electricity?" Andy asked.

"Yes, that's the word!  You know what I'm talking about?"

"Both my parents were Muggles, so I was raised as one."

"Really?  Do you think you could explain the telly-vision thing?  Is it like the Floo Network?  I mean, I've never actually seen one work, but I've read about them.  Do you think you could?"

"There you are, Arthur!" Molly Weasley bustled out of a shop with Ron close behind carrying a large load of boxes.  "I was beginning to where you had run off to."  She noticed Andy standing nearby.  "Oh, hello, dear, did you have a nice summer?"

Andy wanted to tell her everything that had happened, but knew she couldn't.  It was only an innocent question, not one meant to provoke her.  Obviously no one else knew about her near-death experience during the attack or what had happened to Sirius and Remus.  She supposed she would have to make something up.  "It was extremely restful, to say the least.  And yours?"

"It was very exciting!  We vacationed in France."

"Wow, that's impressive.  Is the Eiffel Tower really as huge and as amazing as people say it is?"

"Oh, yes, it was simply gorgeous!  Everything was so beautiful there!"

"And how was the Louvre?  Did you visit there?  Did you see a da Vinci or a Raphael?"

"Arthur wanted to go there.  The paintings and other art were absolutely spectacular!  Though they were not as grand as I expected; they didn't move or talk to you like artwork should."

"Of course they wouldn't talk!  The artists were Muggles!" Andy sounded almost indignant as if she could not believe that some one would think that of a da Vinci.

"Are you sure?" Arthur butted into the conversation.  "With skills like that, I would not be surprised if some of those painters were wizards."

"True, but still…we would have known by now if they were.  There is a chance, but it is rather slim.  I don't think they were."

"Yes, but speaking of Muggles, what about that telly-vision thing?"

"You mean television?"

"Yes, that, the little box with all the people inside it."

"Alright, fine…It more or less is a box with pictures, though there are no people living inside it."

"There aren't?  Then how does it work if the people can't be right there?"  

"No, of course not!  How could so many different people fit inside one tiny, little box?  It's all moving pictures, sort of like our paintings, though in Muggle style.  Each picture is made up of tiny parts…"

{Author's Note:  Well, that was pointless.  Oh, well. It's what happens when I get bored and decide that I feel the need to throw Lucius in every so often for the hell of it.  And mind you, like Andy, I have an odd habit of randomly showing up places.  It scares people.

Anna Black:  Alright, let's see if I can explain this.  When we got our other computer about a year and a half ago (after I had joined ff.net), it came with a free year of AOL, so we kept that for our internet service.  Before AOL, we had about two or three different ones, so instead of changing my e-mail address every time we changed providers, I created a Yahoo account, which I have used for about four years as my main account.  Mind you, I also have a separate AIM account instead of simply using AOL IM because we tend to change providers a lot. So it is easier for me in the long run to just keep my Yahoo account as my e-mail.  Yahoo, unfortunately, was not cooperating when I posted the last chapter and would not let me open mail, reply to mail, or compose mail, so no posting message got sent.  On top of that, Dad restricted my internet access because he said that I stay on-line too much.  Therefore, life sucks, except for my boyfriend because he's sweet and gives me chocolate, which is a good thing.  I think I have way too much fun with Snape.  What do you say?

Shasa Perino:  Yes, Snape has returned.  I think I have a wee bit too much fun with him.  Oh well…and yes, hot and sour soup.  I am evil enough to kill Sirius, but we have to have some comic relief in the story.

Lunatic:  I welcome you to my humble collection of Harry Potter Fan Fictions, though they usually don't involve Potter himself.  I do have some odd obsession with Snape, who some how has no problem acting like himself.  I think he's the one character from the books that I can actually write halfway decently.  You're supposed to feel sorry for Andy.  It's how she is.  No, Remus and Sirius are not dead; they just had to be taken out of the picture for a bit.

Sora G. Silverwind:  Good for you.  They are trapped, unconscious, or something.  Snape has returned.  He's the best! 

Peace, Love, and Peanut Butter Smidgeons, Nataly Ravenlock}


	12. Cold Face Of Darkness

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for the characters of Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the Cat who are figments of my own imagination.}

{This chapter contains violence, torture, and a bit of rape.  It's rather dark, just as a warning to those that read it.}

**Chapter 12**

**Cold Face Of Darkness**

Severus Snape lay motionless on an ornate black and green bed.  A cool breeze that signified the imminent end of summer tickled the dark window hangings.  It reached the sleeping man and he shuddered slightly then lay still once more.  Nothing was moving.

As sudden as a flash of lightening, the Slytherin bolted upward, grasping his left forearm.  He glanced down at it to reassure himself that the Dark Mark was glowing red and fierce, then looked away to make certain that no one was near.  Grabbing his wand, he pulled on a clean set of robes with his cloak and mask in hand.  A short note was penned to Dumbledore, stating only that he had gone out and would hopefully be back shortly if he did not get sidetracked.  Dumbledore would understand the meaning.  To any one else, it might seem like a normal note giving the whereabouts of a person.  To Dumbledore, it would say that by 'going out' he had been summoned to Lord Voldemort and by 'will be back shortly if he did not get side tracked' he would return as soon as permissible if he was not injured or if he could not do so immediately.  Snape took off from his rooms, stalking through the empty, quiet halls, through the doors and into the woods, where he was free to Apparate away.

The doors to the Dark Lord's throne room opened as he approached them.  Severus took only enough time to don his robes and mask before he entered.  A small group of similarly garbed figured stood around their Master, waiting for their orders.  He took his place in the back as a few other members appeared around him.

Lord Voldemort sat stiffly in his gilded throne of serpents and gems.  His long, twisted fingers lay curled over the arms.  Only two, red, glowing eyes could be seen out of the cowl he wore.  "Bow to me," he hissed softly.  The entire group dropped to their knees, bringing their heads to the floor in homage.  "I have summoned you here tonight in order to complete a task for me.  There is a rather annoying Muggle village a few miles from here that is not of my liking.  I want all its inhabitants destroyed."

"Yes, Master," a cumulative answer echoed from the covered lips of the groveling figures, not bothering to question their Master's orders.  What did they care if a couple Muggles died?  Muggles were worthless anyways.

"Now go!"

Everyone sprang to their feet and rushed to the doors.

"Severus, stay.  I have other plans for you."

Snape stopped mid-stride and turned back to his Lord.  He said nothing and kept his head bowed, though he did not go back to his knees.  It was unknown to him what Voldemort might want with him.  There was a fifty-fifty chance that it could be a good thing or a something that could make him a corpse.  He hoped that he would not be gruesomely tortured, especially with a new semester beginning in only a few days' time and his new position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.  He honestly did want to be alive to for the first day of classes.

"Yes, Severus, I have plans for you," Voldemort repeated in an ominous voice.  His eyes shone darkly through the hood, seeming to gaze into the depths of Snape's soul even without eyes contact.  "You have given me many things in the past: your loyalty, your blood, your poisons, your immense knowledge of the Darker Arts.  Now there is something else I require from you, something that I can use to my advantage over those against me.  Your position at Hogwarts has granted me access to those that lead the people against me.  With you I have been able to keep track of Dumbledore and _Potter_." He spat the name as if it were a foul taste in his mouth.  "Now there is one other at Hogwarts that I need you to keep an eye on: Andromeda McGee."

"Yes, Master."

"I need you to do more than just watch her and inform me if anything interesting comes about.  You see, Severus, I want only the best on my side because in the end it is always the best that wins.  McGee is one of the best; therefore I want her alliance to be with me, not Dumbledore and especially not Potter."

"Yes, Master."

"I have already made certain that there are no others to interfere with my plans.  The other two idiots that she was friends with have been, shall we say, done away with for the time being.  Get her loyal to you then bring her to me."

"Yes, Master."

"Now go join your brothers.  I want that town destroyed tonight."  The Dark Lord pointed his ebony wand at Snape, sending him to the small village.

Destruction had already begun.  The Muggles knew nothing of fighting against magic.  They ran from their houses, panicking in complete chaos.  It was so easy for the Death Eaters to simply point a wand, utter a word and send the nearest person into painful convulsions.  To make it worse, most of them enjoyed inflicting the Muggles with various forms of suffering.

Snape watched from the shadows for a moment.  He knew that he should join in the task, but something made him stay back.  Something in his heart told him not go, not to murder innocent people.  No, he had to go.  The other Death Eaters would notice his absence and report it back to Voldemort.  That would not be very good at all.  He could try to save a few people or at least end their lives before they suffered too much.  He stepped out from the darkness into the street.

A tiny boy in pajamas with tears streaming down his face ran up to him.  He began to beat the Slytherin with his fists, chanting over and over again, "You killed my mommy!  You killed my mommy!"  Snape gently shoved him aside and kept walking.

A larger man stood up from the side of the road where he had been crouched over a newly dead body.  Another Death Eater had obviously been here, yet had only killed one of the three members of the household.  The man noticed Snape and growled menacingly.  "You killed my Jenny, you fucking bastard!  I'm going to kill you!"  The man raced over, a large crowbar gripped tightly in his hands.  He swung it at Snape's hooded head.

Snape moved his torso slightly out of the way and raised an arm to block the other man's arm.  Using his attacker's momentum, Snape guided the man onto the asphalt.   The crow bar skidded across the pavement into a ditch on the side of the road.  He pinned the man's arms behind his back, pinning him to pavement at the same time.  The man struggled gallantly, but he was no match for a trained Death Eater.

"Listen to me if you want to come out of this alive," Snape hissed in his ear.  The man lay still.  "I, personally, did not kill you wife; someone else did.  If you stay here, both you and your son are going to die as well.  I will let you go, but only if you promise me that you will run as far away from here as possible."

"We will," the man muttered.  He knew what was good for him if he valued his life and the life of his son.

Snape stood up.  "I will count to ten then something will explode, looking like you died.  Go!"

The man looked at him strangely for a moment, not seeming to believe that this man would simply let him go after what had been done to his wife, his Jenny.  He had been forced to watch in horror as a group of three figures dressed in the same way as the man who was now offering him the freedom to live had grabbed her from the street where she was waiting for the dog to come back in from its nightly trip outside.  Someone had first killed the dog by burning it to death with a fire that would not go out no matter how hard it tried.  His Jenny had loved that dog and would have done anything to protect it.  That had been her downfall.  He had watched from the doorway as Jenny had raced out the door to the fallen animal, where flames still soldered on its battered body.  She had taken the garden hose and tried to put the fire out but nothing succeeded.  The dog died a few moments later.

The three men realized that they now had a new victim, a human victim that would scream and suffer much better than the mutt they had killed already.  One of them had pointed what looked like a stick at her.  He had learned that it could not have been an ordinary stick when a bolt of purplish light exploded from the tip of it towards his wife.  Jenny froze in place and the men snarled at her.  One of them began by removing her clothes while another had pulled up his robes to undo his own pants. 

At that point he had raced out the door, flannel bathrobe, flying like a cape behind him.  He had grabbed the crow bar from next to his van.  Thankfully he had forgotten to put it away when he was using it earlier in the day.  He swung it at one of the men, only to find himself feet away and unable to move, though he could see every thing that happened around him.  The three men in the black robes proceeded then to rape his precious wife as he was forced to watch.  He wanted to tear his eyes away.  He wanted to leap up and stop them from completing the horrible act that they were doing.  Yet, he could not do anything to stop what was happening.

Jenny had attempted to struggle out of her attackers' grips but could not.  All three of the men had his turn with her.  When they were finished, one pointed his wand at her.  Another burst of light of a different color shot out.  Jenny began to writhe in pain.  She screamed out in agony.  Once again, there was nothing he could do for her.  He struggled against his own bonds, finding no way out.

Finally one of the men pointed his wand at her again and spoke a simple word.  Her cries ceased suddenly as if the life had been taken out of her.  She collapsed on the grass by the end of the driveway.  He could not see her chest moving any more.

The men laughed in a way that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.  They had released the spell on him, knowing that he would be over come with the grief that some one he had cared about had been raped and murdered before his eyes.  The trio of men left suddenly, leaving him alone with his dead wife.  He had smoothed the thick brown hair away from her pale face and closed her eyes with a gentle touch of his hand.

His young son had come outside a few minutes later.  Michael was only five, yet he, too, had to witness the terrible death of his mother, though from his bedroom window instead of a few feet away.  The boy began to cry and his father held him close.

The other man in black had approached from the woods across from the house.  Michael had run up to him and started beating him with his tiny fists.  The man had tried to stop him, but it was of no avail.  He didn't want the same thing to happen to his son.  He picked up his crow bar once more and swung at the man in the dark robes.  The man had somehow disarmed him and pinned him to the pavement of the road.  Now the same man that looked like the murderers that had come before him was willing to let him go free.

He stood up, brushing the stones quickly off of his pants.  "Thank you."

Severus replied only with "One."

The man took one last look at his savior, seeing no face behind the mask.  He scooped up his son in his arms and rushed into the woods away from the town.  His sister lived about a mile away if a person cut through the woods.  By four, he disappeared completely from sight.  Snape finished the count just to be safe and blew up the collection of trash cans that were sitting next to the house's garage.  Those were replaceable; lives of innocent people were not.

Snape glanced over to where the dead body lay.  Jenny, that was what the man had called her, looked only like she was sleeping.  No more pain marred her face from whatever the other Death Eaters had done to her.  She reminded him of a sleeping angel.  Her face held a serene, innocent beauty despite after what she had gone through.  He touched her gently on the forehead, wishing that he could have saved her like he had saved her husband and son.  He knew there was nothing that he could have done, but wished it all the same.

Most of the time playing the double-sided role in life has its consequences.  There are only a few moments when it brings happiness, though few and far apart.  This was a war of the innocents, not just between the forces of Good and Evil or Dark and Light, but of the bystanders that accidentally happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and never deserve to die.  That's what they were fighting for: to protect those that never deserve to die.

{Author's Note:  Well, that was depressing, wasn't it?  Oh, well.  It was amusing to write.  I apologize for not posting in a while.  I was after school until about 7ish for one week, then the next, I was after from 5:00 until 10:30 for the first three days.  Thursday March 13th was my 17th birthday and the in-school performance of Les Misèrables and Friday and Saturday were the actual performances.  On top of that we had a cast party after each performance, lasting until about 2:30 in the morning both times.  The cast parties were fun.  Mind you I have a week and a half break before the next play starts, though it should not be as bad Les Misèrables, which was hell, especially with all the fake blood for the death scenes.  Now that was fun.  Any ways, we should be getting Road Runner tomorrow, so that may make my life a bit easier.  My e-mail will stay the same for those wondering.

Lunatic:  Boredom and I do not get along very well.

Anna Black:  It gets worse: we're ditching AOL and getting Road Runner.  The petition sounds like a wonderful idea.

Shas Perino:  It was just an odd chapter, that's why.  And yes, Peanut Butter Smidgeons.

Peace, Love, and More Peanut Butter Smidgeons because I finally got a box of them, Nataly Ravenlock}


	13. Unwell

{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for the random figments of my own imagination, including Andy McGee and Wyvern the Cat.}

**Chapter 13**

**Unwell**

_**I'm not crazy/ I'm just a little unwell/I know right now you can't tell/ But stay a while and maybe then you'll see/ A different side of me/ I'm not crazy/ I'm just a little impaired/ I know right now you don't care/ But soon enough you're gonna think of me/ And how I used to be. Unwell Matchbox 20**_

There was only a single day left before the students would come pouring back to Hogwarts.  All of the professors were there, planning, researching, some plotting against the students they knew they would have to teach in the up-coming semesters.  Severus Snape skimmed through his lesson plan for the seventh time that day.  It was a hopeless endeavor; he already knew it by heart.  He had everything planned since before Dumbledore had first asked him to take the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.  The first years would learn the basic Dark creatures, spells to ward them off, and properties of the milder Dark plants.  The second years would go a tad bit more in-depth.  Year three would introduce some curses, including _Crucio, Imperio, _and_ Avada Kedavra.  The fourth years and the fifth years would go even more in-depth on the topics.  He would start the actual physical defense at the end of the fifth year.  The sixth years would learn more of the advanced physical combat skills with weapons, not wands.  For the seventh years, everything and then some would be covered so that they would be prepared for the worst.  He feared that the worst would be upon them sooner than they thought it would be._

The only thing that bothered him was teaching the actual physical combat without the use of wands.  It wasn't that he couldn't do it, but more of he was reluctant to teach it to the immature dunderheads that he normally got in class.  With their dumb luck, someone was bound to get grievously injured and it would be blamed on him.  Naturally that would happen.  The student would then write home, complaining to his parents that he got hurt and it was all evil, greasy Professor Snape's fault.  Yes, that would be what would happen.

He slammed the book shut, causing it to slide across his neatly organized desk.  It landed with a hollow "thump" on the floor.  Snape stood up and kicked it.  People would always find ways to make his life completely miserable.  He stomped out of his classroom and slammed the door behind him.  It crashed in way that only made him more miserable.  The Slytherin billowed down the dark hall, black cape swirling menacingly behind him.

Severus just wanted to get away from people.  He knew there would be many more of them at Hogwarts come tomorrow night, too many for his liking.  He stormed outside, glad of the gloom from the cloud covered sky.  To him, it was a perfectly pleasant day.  Anything stormy, even the tad bit dreary was absolutely wonderful.  It suited his mood.  He honestly hated sunny days.  They tended to give him a headache.  

He approached the pond to find it already occupied by a lone person, namely the only other person he knew who would actually enjoy the dark weather: Andromeda McGee.  He never figured out why she loved the overcast, stormy days, but remembered that she had told him many times that she did.  It never made sense to him.  She was naturally a more vivacious person, always coming and going, never in one spot for too long.  Somehow she once reminded him of a bumblebee or a hummingbird, always moving, flitting from place to another, never stopping to rest.  Yet, she still loved the rainy, dreary days.

Snape remembered earlier days at Hogwarts when they had been students.  Every thunder storm without fail, Andy would climb to the tallest tower and watch the downpour from the window.  He had joined her a few times, sometimes dragged up there, other times, by his own ideas.  It had become a habit.  Every storm that was after the time when classes were over, they would end up meeting in the tower.  More often than not, Andy would be the one to poke her head out the window or climb to the flat part of the roof nearby and dance in the flowing rivulets of water.  He had been dragged out once or twice against his own free will.

At the moment, as he watched her, Andy was simply sitting on the ground poking something on the ground.  He shook his head, hiding a slight smirk.  Yes, Andy would always remind him of a small child, fascinated with the world.  He guessed that she had probably found a bug or small creature that she would torment until it ran away from her.  She pounced at whatever she was studying and promptly missed it.  The creature moved again and Andy watched with careful eyes.  She leapt at it, missing again, and tripped over her own feet onto the ground.  Snape chuckled without realizing it.

Andy heard the laughter and glance up from her position on the ground.  She glared at Snape for a moment before seeing the movement of her prey from the corner of her eye.  Once more she went after it, this time, succeeding in capturing it.  "Got it!"

Snape still laughed quietly at her.  Andy would never change from her perpetual state of child-like amazement.

"Would you please tell me what exactly you find so hilarious?"

The Slytherin stopped his sniggering.  "You, McGee, that is what I find hysterical.  You never fail to amuse me."

Andy pulled herself off the ground, not letting go of her find.  "I'm glad I amuse somebody."  She peeked inside her cupped hands.  It was still there.  She looked up to see Snape gazing at her curiously.  "What?  I was sitting out here and I saw a grasshopper and I decided to try to catch him."

"I never asked what you were doing, McGee.  I was simply pondering how much you remind me of a five year old child."

"Are you attempting to insult me?"

"No, I was making a common observation."

Andy bit at her bottom lip as her eyes lit up.  With a flick of her wrist, she threw the captured insect at Snape.  He jumped back, not expecting it and peered at the greenish brown creature perched on his shoulder.  With a sigh, he plucked it off and set it back on the grass.  It hopped quickly away.  "Don't you have anything better to do than terrorize helpless creatures?"

"No," she grinned innocently at him.  "Wait, yes, I could be terrorizing you."

"You could be, but you are not going to do so."

"Of course I am!  What a wonderful ideas you always have, Sev!  I think I'm going to stop terrorizing the helpless insects and terrorize you instead."

"McGee," he warned her, fully aware that she would attempt to terrorize him in some way if he gave her the chance to do so.

"What?"

"No."

"Yes," her face broke into a huge grin.

"No," Snape said a bit more forcefully.

Andy only smiled wider, "Yes."  She punched him straight in his stomach.

The strike caught Snape off guard.  He hadn't expected Andy to do anything like that.  If she wanted to punch him that she would get it.  No one struck Severus Snape and got away with it, except for Voldemort, but that was a completely different set of circumstances.  "Alright, that's it, you!"

Andy put her hands up in a guard position, shifted her stance and bending her knees to give her balance.  "I can take you on."

"No, you cannot, McGee.  Stop trying to convince yourself."  Snape took a similar stance after removing his heavy cloak.

Andy threw a quick set of three strikes to Snape's ribs.  He easily blocked them and countered with a jab at her face followed by a kick aimed at the same area.  Andy ducked the punch, sliding closer to him with another round of punches.  She executed a quick right hook to his temple, lightly brushing against his skin.  She jumped away from him, "That's one."

"It's only one, McGee.  You still haven't proven anything yet."  Snape countered her attack with a flurry of fast punches.  Andy blocked and dodged, forcing his arms up.  She came around with a spinning crescent kick, followed by a back-fist to side of Snape's head.  Severus had expected this, knowing how Andy fought and succeeded in blocking it.  He threw a front kick aimed at her stomach with a strike to her head and another kick.  The second kick broke through her guard and tapped her lightly on her ribs.  "One for me."

"That makes us even."  Andy came back at him with a round of punches all aimed at different parts of his body.  Snape blocked and countered with another kick.  His long legs were the only advantage he had over her.  Andy was small and agile enough to move out of the way of his strikes, but she had shorter arms and legs that made it so she had to be close to hit him.  By kicking and keeping her away from him, he would not get hit.  Andy, on the other hand, knew very well that Severus had long legs and that he would attempt to kick to keep her away.  Therefore, she would have to get to inside of his kick to get close enough to hit him.

Andy captured his leg as Snape came at her with another kick.  She pulled it up and Snape fell over from his balance being lost.  Andy ignored the rule of not attacking a person when they were down and jumped at him with her heel connecting with his stomach.  Snape grabbed her ankle, pulling her down as well.  He rolled on top of her, pinning her to the summer grass.

"What now, McGee?"  He questioned maliciously as he sat on top of her stomach, holding her wrists above her head.

"I do this."  Andy used her feet to push herself forward enough to gain leverage against him.  She pulled Snape off balance and as she did so, brought her knees up to chest to kick him just hard enough to let her go.  

Snape was pushed off as Andy scuttled backward across the grass.  "You little bitch!"  He sprung up, diving at her.  His shoulder caught her in the gut, knocking the wind partially out of her.  Andy fell back, breathing hard, allowing Snape to slide over her from his momentum.  She stood up, one arm protectively around her midsection, and ran at him as he got off the ground.

Severus turned just in time to catch Andy around the waist and swing over his shoulder.  He straightened up nonchalantly as she continued to beat him from her new perch.

"Put me down!"

"Not until you apologize."

"Apologize for what?" She was completely indignant.  "What did I do?"

"You punched me."

"So what?  You fought back."

"That's because no one hits Severus Snape and gets away with it."

"Ah," from her place over Snape's shoulder, Andy nodded and stopped pounding on his back with her fists.  "Not even me?"

"Especially not you, McGee."

"Well, then I refuse to apologize because it is not fully my fault."

"You do realize that I have no problems holding you like this for long periods of time, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, I fully understand that, Sev.  You are perfectly capable of carrying me like this.  You've done it before and you're doing it now."

"Good, you do realize it.  Now apologize."

Andy sighed.  "Fine.  I apologize for striking you."  Snape lowered her to the ground and she continued, "But, I am most definitely not sorry for starting that wonderful sparring match."

"I never said anything about the sparring match.  I just wanted an apology for the first strike of which you had no reason to hit me."

"Sure I had a reason," Andy defended her motives.

"What, pray tell, would that be?"

She thought hard.  "I don't know, but I will think of one eventually."

The first few rain drops fell as the skies above opened up.  Fat drops of water tumbled to the earth in a sudden drenching downpour.  Andy lifted her arms, spinning in a circle under the droplets.  Snape turned to hustle inside, not appreciating the concept of being soaked.  It came to him that Andy would stay there until the rain had dried up and would most likely give herself double pneumonia.  That would be highly likely, knowing Andy well enough.  He picked her up again over his shoulder since she was near enough and in position to do so.  Snape jogged inside, depositing his burden only after they had reached the inside of the Great Hall.

"What the hell was that for?" Andy was perturbed at having been dragged away from her fun and excitement.

"That was because you would only succeed in getting yourself sick from staying out in the cold rain too long for your own good."

"I would have come in eventually."

"It's not you that I am worried about.  You have to teach tomorrow and therefore we cannot have you coming down with some grave illness that will but in the Infirmary for another couple of weeks.  No Potions Master in this school, especially while I am still here, will ever be considered infirm for any reason what so ever."

"What gives you that authority?" Andy snapped.

Snape stopped mid stride and spun to face her.  "Because I am Severus Snape."

{Author's Note:  I apologize for the long delay.  This chapter gave me a complete mind block and took at least three or four rewrites to get it partially the way I wanted it to go.  But it is now done and posted.  Hopefully Chapter 14 will not take as long.  Needless to say, I've been busy.  We had parade season for Marching Band and it rained out one of the two parades.  We had the Junior Prom on the Friday before that.  I got my boyfriend to dance with me willingly.  It rocked!  School sucks, but we're almost out for the summer.  I think we have two weeks until Regents exams.  I only have three this year: Physics, U.S. History, and English.  I also had AP exams in Physics and History.  Those were a blast, especially Physics.  I've had good things happening, so we're doing better than what we were doing earlier.

Kute Citty:  The sequel is supposed to be a continuation of the first fic.  It will get better.  There was just a bit of a lull between the action and I have had a mind block for the past month.  In my mind, Death Eaters are extremely evil and based on what I want to happen with the plot, I wanted to put the rape in there to show how evil they could be.

Lily Skylo:  Welcome aboard!  Thank you for reading both of these fics.  I hope to write more soon, too.

Morgaine:  Its understandable.  Life is busy.  English is fun.  Cappuccino is much better though.  I like cappuccino.  Its yummy but my friends have learned that giving me anything with caffeine is extremely dangerous.

Lunatic: Thank you.  I liked my Death Eater/ Voldemort thing.  It seemed very appropriate at the time.

Sora:  I know not much has been happening.  That's mainly because I have been attempting to get everything in place so that my master plan can go into effect.

Peace, Love, and Cappuccino, Nataly Ravenlock} 


	14. Reoccurring Conundrums

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this, save for the figments of my imagination, including Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

**Chapter 14**

**Reoccurring Conundrums**

_**Tell me why you gotta be so cold/ How'd you get so high/ Why you're keeping me low/ You don't know, you don't know, don't know/ And tell me how we're gonna make it last/ You're ready to fly/ I'm ready to crash/ Don't go, don't go away. Cold Matchbox 20**_

Severus Snape paced restlessly through his living quarters.  It was barely day break; he should have been sleeping for a few hours yet, but found that he couldn't.  Voldemort's directions still hung heavily upon his conscious even though they had been given to him nearly five months before.  He knew that his Lord and Master required, no, desperately wanted, Andy to join his forces, just because Andy was one of the best and he only would use the finest wizards in his plan for world domination.  Snape knew that he would have to bring it up with her eventually, but wasn't exactly certain how to break the news to her.

He was never much of a conversationalist.  He had never wooed any ladies with the smooth tenderness of his tongue.  He had never ensorcelled audiences with magnificent speeches full of wonderment and awe inspiring sentence.  Instead, Snape was prone to getting straight to the exact point, no matter how gruesome it was.  For him, sugar coating did not exist.  

Severus had procrastinated too long with speaking to her.  It was already nearing Christmas.  The beginning of the school semester had passed with a blur now that he was teaching the subject that he favored.  Andy had barely talked with him except in passing and the occasional conversations in hallways or during rain storms.  She had been busy and so had he.

Snape stopped his pacing in front of the exit from his lair.  "It's either now or never," he spoke rhetorically to himself.  "She ought to know what's going on, especially if it deals with Voldemort."  He licked his parched lips and walked out the door, black cloak billowing behind him for the eviler effect.  

He strode the familiar staircases to the potions dungeon, feeling small pangs of regret that he was no longer residing down in the dark, cool lower levels.  The tinges of emotion were brushed away as he approached Andy's door.  The familiar painting of the six creatures was still hanging there, though the wards had long ago disappeared.  He rapped sharply on the wood and waited.

There was no answer.  He had figured that Andy should have been up by now.  She never had been one to sleep late and more that once, she tended to spend weekends without sleeping, spending entire nights working on whatever project she conceived for herself.  He knocked again and thought about if she would be in her quarters or some place else.  If she was working, as he had suspected, then she would have been in her laboratory, not in her room.

As he turned to check the other rooms, the door slowly creaked open and a disheveled head poked itself out.  The head turned, eying the corridor with half cracked lids until the gaze rested on Snape.  The body connected to it stepped out the door.  It blinked hard only once before speaking.  "I am not even going ask if you know what time it is.  I assume you do not or else you would not be knocking at my door.  It is FOUR o'clock in the bloody morning, Sev!  What the hell are you doing at my door?"

Snape had the right to look chagrined.  He hadn't checked the time when he should have done so.  He swallowed, knowing that a disgruntled Andy was not going to be fun to deal with.  It would be best to lay things out straight.  "We need to talk, McGee."

"Can't this wait until a decent hour?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

Andy glared menacingly at him, or at least as menacingly as she could while being half asleep.  "What makes you think that I will let you say what is so important that you had to wake me out of a sound sleep?"

Snape thought fast on his feet and muttered "_Orchideous_," under his breath.  A bouquet of tiger lilies, mums, and astromeria popped out of the end of the wand hiding behind his back.  He presented them to Andy with a bow.  "Will flowers do?"

The tension let out of her shoulders as she accepted the bouquet with a slight grin.  "I suppose they will have to do for now.  Come on in, Sev."  She raked her fingers through her still short hair and shut the door behind him.  "Have a seat.  Let me put water on for tea and put these pretty things in a vase."  She disappeared into the kitchen and Severus seated himself in an over-stuffed red leather armchair.

Andy reappeared a few moments later with a blue vase containing the flowers that he had used to pacify her.  His ploy had apparently worked, he noticed pleased with his accomplishment as she set it on the end table.  She flopped onto the end cushion of the couch matching his chair.  "So what's so important that you had to wake me from the beauty sleep that I really need right now?"

Severus thought for a moment before he began.  "I am not certain where to begin with this, McGee.  I'm not sure that I can explain everything properly, but I shall attempt to do so."

"Then shoot, Sev," Andy yawned, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. She gazed at him with her dark eyes questioning his purpose enough to concentrate on staying awake long enough to hear the information.

"Back in August, I was summoned to Lord Voldemort's Castle.  It was the same day that a Muggle village was destroyed by my fellow Death Eaters.  We demolished the entire place, taking no prisoners, killing, murdering everyone we cast our eyes on, even the ones that were still asleep in their beds.  Women were raped, children murdered in cold blood.  I came only at the end of it, but still it happened.  There was nothing that I could have done," Snape paused, took a breath, and continued.

"Lord Voldemort held me behind before the revel began.  He had a special task for me, something only I could do for him.  He never said it would be this difficult, but then again he never thinks about those consequences.  He just wants everything done now, not tomorrow," he trailed off, not wanting to tell her the fate that his Master had bestowed upon her.

Andy climbed off the couch, standing in front him, now fully alert.  If this something had been bothering the infallible Severus Snape, then something was definitely up.  She was not certain if she really, truly wanted to know what was going on, but she knew that Snape felt it was important.  She lifted up his chin to force his black eyes to meet her stare.  "What is it, Sev?  What did he order you to do?"

He said nothing.

"You came to tell me what ever this is, Sev.  Tell me.  What ever it is, I can take it," Andy tried to coax him into speaking once more.

He still did not speak.

"Fine, if this is how you are going to be, just leave now.  I still plan on sleeping for a bit yet."

Without removing his eyes from hers, he began to speak in a lifeless monotone.  "He remembers what you did for him last year, McGee.  He still hasn't figured it out that the potion did not work on him.  He's still convinced that he is omniscient."

"What does that have to do with me?"

Severus tore his gaze away from her, springing up onto his feet, almost knocking her over.  "Do you see what I am getting at, McGee?  Don't you see where this is heading?"

Andy pondered what he had said for a moment.  "No, I'm sorry, I am afraid that I do not.  I am not fully awake; you woke me from an extremely sound sleep.  I do not comprehend completely what you are saying."

"Lord Voldemort wants you to join his forces, McGee, and he will do everything in his power to get you on his side."

The room turned silent.  The only noise was the chirping of the crickets and the hiss of the tea pot.  Andy stood in shock for a moment, letting what had been said register in her mind.  She shuffled limply to the kitchen, preparing the tea in utter silence.  Two mugs were prepared: mint for her, English Breakfast for him.  She returned to the den, placing the mugs on the table before she spoke.

"Voldemort wants me to become a Death Eater."  She said it as a matter of fact, more questioning if she had heard it correctly than the actual truth of it.

"Yes, McGee, I am afraid that is what I came to tell you."  Snape picked up the mug of tea and took a sip.  At least she had remembered what he preferred in the morning, though he did not know how she knew.  

"That's all he wants of me?"

"Yes."

"You mean he doesn't want an obscure potion that no one else has ever heard of or some sort of something that only I am capable of doing, just me, myself, at his beck and call until he dies?"

"Yes, McGee."

"Can't I just tell him that I refuse to accept his invitation?"

"He would not accept that, McGee.  You should know that by now.  The Dark Lord does not accept 'no' for an answer very often."

Andy looked to the hard wood floor for answers to her unasked questions.  There were none found there.  She took a deep breath.  "Damn.  That's not good, is it?"

"I would not think it so."

There was a long pause before Andy voiced a major concern.  "Will I die if I refuse?" she asked, trembling.

"It is highly likely that you would either be tortured until you do agree or killed if you still refuse."

Tears welled up in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.  "I can't do it, Sev.  I'm not meant to be a Death Eater.  I'm on the good side.  After all that he did to me, why does he think that I would do anything differently now?  Why is he convinced that I would give him assistance in his plan for world domination when I have never helped him in the past?"

"Actually you did help him, McGee.  He is still convinced that he is omnipotent, remember?"

"I don't care.  I hate him for all that he's done to me, to Sirius, to James and Lily and Harry, and to you…" she sobbed.

Snape barely believed what he had just heard.  Did she actually feel pity for him for all that he had gone through?  He reached up and took her hands, guiding her on to his lap.  He cradled her in his arms like a child as she cried on his shoulder.  "It'll be alright, McGee."

"No, it won't be alright!  It never is alright!  Everything always goes wrong and then some one gets killed and this time it's probably going to be me!  I don't want to end up like Sirius and Remus!"

"McGee, listen to me.  There are other ways of doing this that may not get you killed."

"No, there aren't!  I'm going to die!"

Snape sighed.  Why did Gryffindors always have to be stubborn beyond all given reason?  "McGee, you will not be killed.  You are not going to die.  You are not going to end up missing like your Gryffindor comrades."

"How do you know?" she shot back through the tears that fell from her eyes.  "How do you know that I won't?"

"I have lasted about twenty years in the Death Eater ranks without dying.  Most of those years, as you know, I worked for Dumbledore as a spy.  I had a larger chance of my death occurring sooner than I wanted it to than anyone else."

"So what?"

"What I am suggesting to you is that you obey Voldemort's summoning and speak with Dumbledore about what you are being forced to do, especially that your life may be at stake."

"Would he listen to me?"

"Dumbledore?  Yes, he would listen to you.  He knows you better than you know yourself, McGee.  He will understand.  Speak with him before you make your decision."

There were a few more sniffles into Snape's right shoulder before she spoke again.  "Does he already know?"

"No, McGee, he does not.  I have kept this secret since Voldemort gave me the orders.  In the Death Eater ranks, it is usually best to keep things secret.  That is the only thing that has prevented me in being discovered after all these years."

Andy snuggled into him, deciding that in the lack of her own, he made a good pillow.  His robes were soft with use and smelled like fresh soap mixed with spices.  She felt her eyes slowly begin to close as her mind drifted back into the dream world.  She remembered to mumble one last thing before returning to sleep.  "Thanks, Sev."  

It took Snape a few moments of silence to realize that she had fallen asleep in his arms.  Readjusting her position, he stood up and carried her back to her room.  Gently he laid her in the rumpled sheets, pulling the lumpy quilt back over her sleeping form.  He smoothed back the hair from her forehead, letting his hand rest there for a second.  "Good night, McGee.  I'm sorry I had to tell you all this."  In a black blur, he exited her dormitory and returned to his own.

{Author's Note:  Well, that took less than a month this time to write and post, mainly because I decided to skip the details and go onto what I had planned to begin with instead of going into unimportant details.  WOO-HOO!  Everybody celebrate!  School is out and I am bogged down with Driver's Ed at least four days a week, sometimes five, marching band starts next week, and on top of that I am now baby-sitting the 20 month old girl that lives across the street.  Next week, I get all four of my wisdom teeth out.  Summer Vacation is an oxymoron.  The part about Snape giving Andy flowers is a mention of something my boyfriend did for me.  My mom and I had been on vacation for a week and the day we got back, my wonderful guy decided to stop over just to deliver a bouquet of flowers for me.  Needless to say, I was almost in tears from the complete shock.  He's going to be kept for a while longer yet.

Anna Black:  I know the dialogue was a bit dry.  That would be for two reasons.  Sparring usually takes all the air out of you from the constant motion of it and I was still having writer's block.  

Sora: Yes, the chapter formatting is screwed up because it was posted under a word document instead of HTML.  That was because I had to get my boyfriend to post the chapter and saved it wrong before the post.

Lily Skylo:  I try to keep things as interesting as I can make them.

Peace, Love, and Flowers, Nataly Ravenlock}


	15. Trials and Tribulations

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

**Chapter 15**

**Trials and Tribulations**

_**Look at all my trials and tribulations/ Sinking in a gentle pool of wine/ Don't disturb me now I can see the answers/ Till this evening is this morning life is fine/ Always hoped that I'd be an apostle/ Knew that I would make it if I tried/ Then when we retire we can write the gospels/ So they'll still talk about us when we've died.  "The Last Supper" Jesus Christ Superstar**_

Andy awoke a few hours later with the sun streaming through her frost covered windows.  Patterns of ice decorated the panes like works of art, created once, lasting moments, and destroyed within hours of their creation.  It reminded her abstractly of her life: she only had one chance to live and who knew what would become of her in the future.

The future…That thought made her cringe.  Too many things were happening that she did not want to occur.  All she wanted was to live her life peacefully without any major catastrophes.  Wasn't that simple enough to ask for?  Obviously the higher beings had different plans for her.

That, of course, was a very unfortunate thing.  Naturally, the problems revolved around Severus Snape and Lord Voldemort, people who she had dealt with the year before.  There had been the attack on Snape in which she had been monumental in finding a way to heal him and Voldemort had decided that she was in his favor for the potion that she had brewed for him, even though he had yet to realize that it was essentially useless.

The Merlin's Potion had been a double edged sword.  It had helped and hindered her at the same time.  She cared enough about Severus to be thrilled that it had healed him, yet now Voldemort wanted her as one of his own.  That was where the major problem came in.  Lord Voldemort was the person that would be in control of what would happen to her for the rest of her life, or the rest of his, which ever came first.

She could always find a way to have Voldemort killed.  She chuckled at the thought.  As if that would happen…The only person who would actually be able to kill the High and Mighty Lord of Darkness, Evil, Destruction, and Chaos would be Albus Dumbledore or, more than likely, Harry Potter.  So unless there would be a way that Harry would kill him some time relatively soon, she had a slim chance of getting out of this mess.

Voldemort would make her a Death Eater complete with the ugly black tattoo of the skull and snake.  She had no obvious choices other than to be killed or join him.  Currently she preferred an option that would let her live a few years longer.  If, or more likely, when she joined his ranks, she could have the choice of being a full, completely loyal member or discussing with Dumbledore how she would go around in the reconnaissance aspects of the job.  That in itself would take careful planning.

Her only other option would be to run away.  That would take her away from her friends, colleagues, a solid job, and her home.  She would prefer not to do that, but if push came to shove, she would be willing to go where ever she could be hidden.  

It seemed that her best option would be to join Voldemort, as much as she did not want to do so.  It would keep her from being killed and would basically allow her to live her life how she had been, with a few extras on the side.  It would not be the healthiest option, she decided, remembering what had happened to Severus last year, but she would survive.  That was her nature; she was a survivor.

Andy pulled her self sitting on her bed.  Wrapped in the still warm quilts and comforters, she stared out at the winter.  Crystal snow decorated the edges, cold, lifeless, yet still pristine and graceful.  Fingers of frost covered the rest of the glass, leaving no traces of the once clear panes.  She knew that if she wanted to, she could make it all disappear in an instant.  Yes, it was so much like her life: a pattern of images, always changing, and always able to be wiped clean if the need be.  She was expendable and she knew it.

She pulled the quilt tighter around her shoulders.  This was not something she wanted to do, but she knew that it would have to be done.  She was a Gryffindor after all; she could be brave in what ever happened.  That was what all Gryffindors could be depended on.  They would all face any situation with courage, facing in straight on without flinching.  Though all she wanted to do was to cower back under her blankets and never come out again, she knew it would not be possible to do.

This was something she needed to do.  She needed to combat Voldemort in her own way.  It was her revenge for those sixteen long years imprisoned in Azkaban, not knowing who she was.  It was revenge for forcing her to disappear into nothingness with no one remembering who or what she was.  It was revenge for making her life completely miserable in every way possible.

She would get her revenge, not matter how long it took.  It would happen and it would be extremely sweet and satisfying.  Then, she could finally sleep free of worry and doubt of what would happen next and if she would survive another day.  Yes, that would be how it would happen.  She would live.  She would be happy with her life and she would be afraid of dying or disappearing every single day of her life.  It would happen.  Eventually.

Severus Snape stalked to the breakfast table, pausing to glare at an unfortunate Hufflepuff that had chosen to look at him by accident.  He sat down a chair away from Madame Pomfrey, at an end where he would not be bothered.  Taking a mug of tea and a slice of buttered toast, he noticed Andy had yet to arrive for the morning meal.  He glanced at his watch, finding it late enough that she should have been awake by now, yet early enough that, since it was the weekend, it would not be impossible for her to still be sleeping off what he had told her.

Deep in his mind he regretted having to tell her what he did.  It was not a large piece of his mind, merely a small, infinitesimal sliver that still held what ever conscious he still managed to possess after the years of being a Death Eater.  He knew that it had to be done; therefore he had done it, though obviously not at the correct time.

A silvery owl swooped down out of the flurry that appeared through the rafters to land by his plate.  It dropped a single scroll of parchment, unmarked except for the black wax insignia of the skull and snake.  Snape pocketed it quickly, knowing exactly who it was from and guessing what it had written on it.  Nibbling on the remaining toast on his plate, the owl soared away.

The appearance of the note soured his stomach.  He could not eat, knowing what might be in the letter, knowing what evil may befall him.  No matter how many times he received these letters, they always had the same effect on him: the feeling of dread and guilt deep in the pit of his stomach.  He did not let the fear show on his carefully composed features as he stood and left the Great Hall.

The Defense corridor was near enough to the Great Hall for him to reach his quarters relatively quickly.  Shutting the door and restoring the many locking charms that he kept on it, Snape breathed a sigh of relief.  No one had taken great notice of his letter, except for maybe Dumbledore, who made notice of everything.  He broke the seal with his knuckle, watching it glow green at his touch.  If it had shown any other color, it would have proved that he was who the letter was meant for and the letter would have promptly killed the curious person who had decided to open in.

Snape read the words slowly, taking in their entire meaning.  He read them again just to make certain he knew what it said correctly.  The letter was then thrown into the fire where it blazed the same green color as it burned to smoldering ashes.  It was just as he had speculated.

Lord Voldemort was beginning to get impatient with Andromeda.  He did not care if she was ready or not or if she trusted Snape yet, as she was supposed to.  He wanted her now, or to be more specific, he was planning on induction night being News Year's Eve.  There was even some comment about "what better to ring in a new year than to bring in fresh blood to the cause?"

Snape shuddered at the thought.  He knew what these ceremonies entailed.  They were not the most pleasant events.  In fact "pleasant" was not even close to what they really were.  If he remembered correctly, and he most certainly always remembered everything correctly, it was more than possible that some one would die that night, tortured by the inductees.  Naturally, there would be more than one…

It also meant there would be another round of having to coax Andy to talk with him, mostly like in the same day as the first conversation.  He figured that this one would be the worse of the two conversations, the first being only a preliminary to the actual situation and this one being the actual facts.  Things always seem more realistic when there are true facts involved with dates and times.  He did not look forward to having to do this one either, but there was not much time and it had to be done.

He would also have to speak with Dumbledore sooner or later.  It would be more sooner than later, judging by that Christmas was in five days and the ceremony in twelve.  That would give them little time to figure out what had to be done in order to prepare for the up coming events.  

Snape kicked the side of his couch viscously.  He knew it was no use taking out his anger on inanimate objects, but sometimes it helped a little bit.  He needed a course of action to take.  After debating between who would be easier to talk to and what would make more sense to do, he decided that Dumbledore would be more helpful and less difficult in the decision making process.

Dumbledore's office was still guarded by the hideous gargoyle, but it let him pass with the given password of 'Candy Cane.'  The Head Master stood by his desk, as if he had been expecting Severus to come to chat (which he had been after noticing the letter).

"Severus, my boy, I am not going to ask what exactly brings you here.  I am assuming that it deals with the contents of the letter you just received."

Snape sat down in a cushy arm chair.  He needed support in a time like this one.  "Yes, Albus, it does, but I am afraid that it is not good news, nor is it remotely helpful in assisting your cause."

"It is from Voldemort though?"

"Yes, it is."

"What does he ask of you to do?"

Snape paused, choosing his words carefully.  "Last year, during Andromeda's and Black's trial, when I was captured and tortured, Andromeda saved my life through the Merlin's Potion and in the process convinced my Master that he is omniscient, though he never was and never shall be.

"By doing this, she gained favor with him, even though he never realized that it was just a simple trick that kept him from knowing everything about anything."  He stopped, letting Dumbledore digest what he was saying.

"Voldemort wants Andromeda to join him," the Head Master said it as a fact, not a question.

Snape nodded almost unperceivably.  "Correct.  I have known this for a while, that he favored her, but never brought it up to you since I assumed that it was only mild interest.  He pushed for me to get her to trust me enough so she would not be too frightened if I were to bring her to my Master at one point in time.  I was not certain when he would choose to move on his plan, but it seems it is much sooner than I had expected.  He is getting impatient, he wants her soon."

"How much time do we have?"

"He plans to induct her on New Year's Eve."

Albus looked grave.  "How much does she know about all of this?"

"I finally told her this morning that Lord Voldemort wanted her to join him."

"And how did she take it?  Not very well, I presume, seeing she was not at breakfast."

"She took better than I had expected, though still rather badly.  She did not through anything nor did she break anything.  She only broke down in tears for a while."  Severus neglected telling the part about her falling asleep in his arms on purpose.

"So she knows what is basically going on.  What are her views on the situation or did she not say?"

"I believe Andromeda found that her only major choice would be to join the Death Eaters.  I know she planned on discussing everything with you at some point and have you advise her on the correct decision.  She seemed willing practice reconnaissance if the need be."

"That is what I expected her reaction to be.  Andromeda would be strong enough physically and mentally to do it, but her emotional state is a whole other matter.  I do not wish to see her become lost in herself again," Dumbledore trailed off, remembering what pain she had been in at the beginning of the school year.  "Talk with her, Severus.  I believe that she will listen to you."

"I will, sir."

"Anything else you needed, my boy?"

"Not at the moment.  I will report back to you once I speak with her, most likely later today."

"Thank you for informing me and tell Andromeda that I will be available to talk with her whenever she needs to."

"I will," Snape stood up from the cushy chair and left the room in a swirl of black.

Dumbledore shook his head slowly, resting the bridge of his crooked nose between his fingertips.  Gentle pressure would not relieve this headache nor would any known remedy in this world.  The only thing that would ease his pain was to have Lord Voldemort gone from this world once and for all.

{Author's Note:  Life has not been the best lately.  I have been taking a driver's ed class that will be over next week.  We have to drive a Chevy Astro Van complete with backup beepers.  That is not fun.  Then we have marching band.  Our new instructors put into their heads that the entire band would have all the music memorized by August 11.  That is basically ten rehearsals to memorize the entire thing.  By the third rehearsal, we were playing and marching the entire opening.  These guys are out to kill us.  Therefore, life has been busy.  Oh yeah…I got all four of my wisdom teeth out on July 10.  I couldn't eat solid food for near two weeks.  Thankfully I like yogurt, tuna fish, and meatballs.  Meatballs are yummy.  My boyfriend got his mother to make a batch when I had my teeth out.  I was over at his two days in a row just to get the meatballs since I could actually eat them.

Anna Black:  I had this part of the story planned for a while.  One of my friends who had read Second Chances thought that I was crazy when I told her my plan of Andy in the Death Eaters.  So therefore, instead of going into boring details of everyday life, I skipped those parts and went to my plot.  I might bring the Occulmency into it.  I am currently plotting the chapter of Andy's deeper reaction to the situation, but that might fit into it quite well.  Busy is hell…I hate summer.  I thought that I had sent a notice, but I am not sure.  I forget to do so sometimes.

Shasa Perino:  Yes, another chapter.  I am trying to over come a writer's block at the moment, so that is why updates have been few and far between.  Andy and Severus have an awkward relationship.  She's a Gryffindor, he's a Slytherin, but they are both strong people and stubborn as hell.  He cares about he as a friend, but currently not much more.  Andy depends on him as a friend since the only other two that she has are currently MIA.

Josie:  Thanks!  It's nice to hear from you every once in a while.  Summer vacation never goes well for me.  I told you that it was an oxymoron because I never get to relax.  I'll be talking to you eventually.

Lily Skylo:  Snape does not want Andy to be a Death Eater.  He was just passing information to her that she needed to know.  He would prefer her to not do anything involving Lord Voldemort, but if she absolutely had do anything, she would become a spy.

Sora:  I have an obsession with flowers.  They are definitely one of my weak points.  My boyfriend learned that if he got me a flower I would be absolutely thrilled for at least the rest of day, if not week.  The actual idea of Snape giving Andy flowers was a complete whim on my part.  It was written as I went along in the chapter, but it seemed like a good idea.  You're supposed to feel bad for Andy and she enjoys falling asleep in Snape's arms.

{Peace, Love, and Meatballs, Nataly Ravenlock}


	16. Hollow

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

**Chapter 16**

**Hollow**

_We are the hollow men_

_We are the stuffed men_

_Leaning together_

_Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!_

_Our dried voices_

_When we whisper together_

_Are quiet and meaningless_

_As wind in dry grass_

_Or rats' feet over broken glass_

_In our dry cellar. _

_"The Hollow Men" T.S. Elliot** _

It took Andy the better part of the day to finally move from the comfort of her warm down quilt.  She knew that she would have to get on with her life and moping around wouldn't save her from the terrors of the Dark Lord.  It was simply inevitable that she would be forced to become a Death Eater.  There was no other way around it.

She pulled on a clean set of black robes with burgundy trim with a simple pair of functional boots.  This day would have to begin some how.  Running a brush through her still short hair, Andy realized how late it was.  Breakfast and lunch were long gone and dinner was a few hours away.  She couldn't believe that she had meditated on her problem for that long, but it had helped her to accept it.  Her stomach rumbled in protest.  Yes, food would be good, she decided, maybe a bowl of nice hot steamy tomato soup with a cheese sandwich, all gooey and oozing, lightly toasted so the edges were crispy, the top slightly browned, and the insides melted to a luscious mess…

Okay, maybe she was hungrier than she thought.  Andy strolled out the door, locking it behind her with a flick of her wand.  The hallways were deserted.  It took her a moment to realize that all the older students and most of the staff were at Hogsmeade for the day.  It was, after all, only four days to Christmas.  There was still some shopping to be done and then there was that Christmas party this year.

Somehow it had been decided that it would be safer to keep the students over the holidays than to risk sending them home.  With all the various attacks going on in the world and the Death Eaters getting more vicious with each passing day, it made perfect sense to do so.  So Dumbledore had planned a Christmas formal.  Unfortunately.

Andy used to enjoy parties with the dancing and high spirits.  But now that Sirius and Remus were gone, she didn't know if she would able to ever take pleasure in celebrations like this coming one.  All her fond memories of the fun and excitement came from her group of close friends, all of which had either died, disappeared, or turned out to be a backstabbing little rat, no pun intended.  There was still Severus, but somehow she could not imagine him having any fun at a student party.  He may have been barely fine for them in his younger days, but currently, most definitely not.

She reached the fruit bowl painting and tickled the pear.  The kitchen was bustling with house elves preparing any type of food imaginable: succulent roasts, pitchers of pumpkin juice, crisp vegetable salads, pasties dripping with sweet fillings…Andy began to salivate.

"May we helps you, miss?" a house elf with a tea cozy asked politely.

"Do you have any soup?"

"Yes, yes!  Soup, we have soup!" the creature raced off and reappeared a few seconds later with a large steaming mug of tomato soup.  "Miss wants something with soup?  We have much to go with soup."

Andy looked at the giant mug and figured it would hold her until dinner.  "Actually soup will suffice perfectly fine for the moment."  She took the mug, sipping slowly to check the temperature.  It was absolutely perfect.  "It's wonderful, thank you."  She left the kitchens, finding the hustle and bustle of busy elves to be something she did not need at the moment.

Drinking the warm liquid, she wandered through the empty halls, contemplating how things would change.  She still didn't know when Voldemort wanted her to become one of his minions, but she had a gut feeling that it would be soon.  The Dark Lord did not strike her as a patient type.

There were still things that she wanted to get done before she would become two-sided.  She still wanted to see Ben in person and apologize for not being there for the past seventeen or so years.  Andy knew where he lived; she had stopped by for an afternoon a few weeks ago.  Ben had been very acceptable of her return.  She hadn't met the rest of his family yet; they were shopping at the time, but Ben had invited her over for Christmas Eve dinner.

Andy was not completely certain of where her future would end up with all the twists and turns happening lately.  Fate got more amusement from screwing around with her life than anything else.  It was a perfect Murphy scenario; if anything could go wrong, it would.  She lived with it, though because anything was better than Azkaban.

She turned a corner, finding herself in an alcove with a broad window giving view to an expanse of the Forbidden Forest.  Leaning on the windowsill, she focused on the pristine beauty of the dark tree covered with the contrasting white snow.  Icicles hung off dead branches like eerie wind chimes, exquisite and deadly.

Closing her eyes, she imagined using the spear of solid water to take her life through the heart, ending her pathetic existence once and for all.  It would be easy enough to do, but no, it would never happen that way.  Her will to live was too strong for her to take her own life.

"Its lovely, isn't it?"

It took her a moment to register the voice.  It actually took her a few seconds later to fully figure out whom it was due to the fact that the person and the word 'lovely' were rarely around each other.  "Yes," she answered truthfully.

"We still need to talk, McGee."

"This morning wasn't enough?"

"It was until I received something else that pertains to your future."

Andy straightened up to face Snape.  "What else can there be?  I've already decided that I will…"

"Shh!" he cut her off sharply with a wave of his hand.  "Not here.  It's not as safe as you would think.  Come, we need to speak in private."

"Sev, how many times is this going to happen today?  Is it all that urgent that you have to hunt me down every couple of hours to exploit more misery into my future?"

"If you plan to survive this, then yes, it most certainly is."  He turned in a swirl of black, heading towards his office.  Andy paused looking out the window one last time before following.

Snape's new office as DADA professor was not much different from the one Andy had inherited.  It was still dimly lit and could provoke fear in even the steeliest of students.  Snape led her through the office and into his private quarters.  "Sit, McGee, we can talk here.  It is secure enough for our needs."

"What needs to be said?  You already told me that I basically have no choice in the matter.  If I want to stay alive, I have to join Lord Voldemort.  It's as simple as that."  She stayed standing.

He sneered as he took a seat in a firm high-backed chair.  "That is where you are wrong.  Now I suggest you sit and listen."  He waited until she complied before continuing.  "This morning, I told you that Voldemort wanted you to join his side of the battle.  Unfortunately for you, he decided to make things a bit more difficult for us.  This morning at breakfast, I received a letter from him stating that he has chosen an induction date.  We now have eleven days to get you ready for this."

Andy did the math in her head.  "That's New Year's, isn't it?"

"Precisely.  Lord Voldemort plans to ring in the New Year with an induction ceremony.  What better way to celebrate than bring fresh blood to the cause?" he quoted the letter almost mockingly.

She blinked and took an automatic sip from her soup mug.  "You aren't kidding, are you?"

"Would I have any reason to lie to you, McGee?"

"I never know with you.  It's always impossible to tell."

Snape chose to ignore the comment.  "We have eleven days to get you ready to face Lord Voldemort.  In that amount of time, I cannot honestly say how well you will be prepared for this, but we will at least attempt to give you some form of training."

"What kind of training?  You mean like physical, get-buff training?"

"McGee…you know exactly what I mean.  We have to mentally prepare you in order to meet Voldemort so you, with you Gryffindor tendencies, do not give us away."

Andy glared, "I am perfectly capable!  I spent sixteen years in Azkaban without losing my mental stability or dying for that matter!"

"You didn't even know who you were at that point."

She closed her eyes, pausing.  "That, even from you, was a low blow."

"It got your attention, did it not?"

"Curse you."

"Good.  Now, here's what we are going to do.  Have you ever heard of Occulmency?"

Andy thought for a moment.  "Yes, of course, hasn't everybody?"

"McGee, I am trying to be perfectly civil with you so you don't go and get yourself killed.  Whether I think so or not, Dumbledore believes that you are a valuable asset to this side of the war and requires that I keep you alive for the time being.  I suggest that you start returning the courtesy."

"Fine, Sev, I'll cooperate.  You try sometime getting told that you have eleven days before you get inducted into a secret evil cult that's planning on world domination when you would obviously be much happier supporting the opposite side.  It's a tad bit stressful."

"Yes, I would assume so."  He could understand her difficulties accepting what she was doing, but at least she wasn't throwing a tantrum again.  "Occulmency is the science of concealing your thoughts.  Some people have latent talent in the field, others have no talent and will never be able to use it, and some may be taught how to use it.  What I am going to do is reach out into your mind.  You may feel a slight tingling sensation.  What I am trying to do is find your mental wall."

"Mental wall?" Andy queried.

"A mental wall is a natural blockage that people have.  The strength of them vary from person to person, but by concentrating you can build one of your own or reinforce one that already exists."

"Ah."

"I want you to look into my eyes.  It helps with direct contact."

Andy gazed straight ahead into Snape's inky black orbs.  For a man whose looks had seen better days, he had gorgeous eyes, deep pools that reminded her of the velvet night sky during a new moon.  She let herself sink into the darkness.

Snape had known her eyes were dark in color, but never realized the actual hue.  They were a smooth shade of chocolate brown, mysterious yet trusting.  He made eye contact, letting the tendrils of his mind reach into hers.  He was not expecting much resistance, especially from a Gryffindor.  The lions tended to have very weak walls, not as weak as Hufflepuffs, but weak none the less.  Slytherins had the highest tendency for strong mental walls next to the Ravenclaws, and he was no exception to the general rule.  His was reinforced through the practice of having his thoughts closed off to every person since he joined the Dark Lord's forces.

He pushed at Andy's mind gently to find the resistance level.  It was surprisingly tough, but Snape didn't let it faze his search.  Reaching further, he shoved harder.  Her wall still held.  He began to get an image of a solid stone wall with no window, each stone carved in vivid details and all different.  That was enough for now.  He didn't want to go any further without her permission.  Breaking walls could be painful.

"I have good news for you, McGee."

Andy snapped out of her concentration.  "You saved money on your car insurance?"  Snape looked startled for a moment before Andy continued.  "Never mind, television commercial that I saw at Ben's house."

"Right."

"So what's this good news?"

"You have a relatively strong mental wall."

"Okay, I think that's encouraging.  What good does that do me?"

"It gives you partial ability to block your thoughts from Lord Voldemort if he attempts to go into your mind to find where your true loyalties lay."

"Ah.  What happens next?"

Snape smirked.  "We see how strong you really are.  What I am going to do is break down your wall.  Any mental wall can be broken if a person know how to do it.  The only draw back is that once your wall is broken down by an outside source, you get a severely painful headache.  It will go away in a few hours, but it does hurt for a while."

"You're going to break through my defensives?  Doesn't that give you full access to my mind?" Andy looked slightly anxious about having Snape poking around inside her head.

"Yes, McGee, it does, but don't worry, I won't use any of the incriminating information that I may find against you."

"That makes me feel so much better."

Snape made eye contact with her once again and located her mental barricade.  He nudged it gently, feeling it push back against him.  He prodded harder, getting less give as the force increased.  It was much stronger than he had expected, some thing to do with Azkaban, he supposed.  Taking a deep breathe, he hit her hard with the full force of his mind.  The wall gave way into shattering shards of stone and mortar.  Andy screamed.

Images barricaded him wildly like a rabid amateur film festival.  Some he by passes completely, like images of her brother, Ben, and Sirius and Remus.  He noticed many of himself, to his complete surprise.  Obviously his impact on her was larger than he had thought.  One memory struck him as entirely too vivid as he got sucked inside it.

Snape saw the scene through eyes of a Death Eater.  It was obviously before his time, for he recognized none of the people present.  A guard led a small woman through the crowd of minions.  It was Andy, years younger, but Andy nonetheless.

The Dark Lord sat on his golden serpentine throne, raised on a dais above everything else.  "Miss McGee," he hissed menacing, "I will give one last chance.  Join me or suffer a fate worse than death."  Snape assumed this was the second time around and that she had refused him before.  He decided that she deserved more credit than he had given her for being able to do that.

Andy looked defiant.  "I've told you numerous times already.  I refuse to join you."

Lord Voldemort was taken aback by her reluctance.  No one in their right mind refused his offer.  "I have then decided that death is too good for one who defies me.  You are going to become a nonentity."

She raised an eyebrow, a puzzled look appearing on her face, asking if it was possible.  "You're going to erase my entire existence?"

"Exactly.  Then just to be safe, you get to spend the rest of your miserable life in Azkaban."

Snape watched her face crease into a mask of fury and rage.  He could empathize with what was happening, but knew he could do nothing to change any of it.

Andy leapt at the Dark Lord, arms extended, intent on strangling him.  He raised his hand and before she was even close to him, she flew into the opposite wall with a sickening thud.  Snape could hear a quiet moan combined with a few explicit curses escape from her mouth.  Voldemort continued as if nothing had happened.  "I shall cast the spell.  Slowly memories, photographs, and writings of you will disintegrate.  No one shall remember that you were ever born."  Voldemort pointed his wand at her.  "**Obliviate Andromeda Josephine McGee**."  A ripple shot out of the wand, spreading across the entire earth.  Sooner or later, Andy would cease to exist.

Snape watched Andy's still form.  She hadn't moved since her collision with the wall.  He pitied what would happen to her.

"Will I forget who I am as well?" she asked quietly from her crumpled ball on the floor.  She hadn't even bothered to get up again.  

"Oh, yes, of course you will.  I can't have you, of all people, leaking out who you are."

"Just out of curiosity, is there any reversal to your spell?"

"No."  Lord Voldemort grinned evilly.  Obviously he was wrong about that, Snape decided to himself.  It was a good thing that he had been wrong.  Without Andy, Snape decided, he would probably have been dead a few times already.  It would have but him out of his misery, but he could be thankful that she had saved his life.

Andy shrugged, dismissing the idea.  It wasn't if she would be told if there was a cure.

The guards grabbed a hold of her and Apparated.  Snape moved with them, appearing now in Azkaban.  He shuddered, feeling the familiar dread seep into his bones.

They dragged her down the rough corridors.  Prisoners reached out from their cells toward the guards as they were a hope of redemption.  Screams reverberated off the walls, finding all the despair and making it part of the fortress.  Andy was thrown into a cell that would be her home until what would seem like eternity.  Snape heard the key click in the lock, closing her inside until the Death Eaters would come and let her out.

He heard her begin to speak softly, tears muffling her voice.  "Good-bye, cruel world.  I shall never see you again except in my dreams.  If I survive, you will never be the same again.  Parts of me will disappear."  She paused, looking up at the stone ceiling.  "Good-bye, Peter.  You'll get your chance in the spotlight eventually.  Good-bye, Remus, and good luck.  They'll find a cure for you, I know they will.  Good-bye, James and Lily.  May your life be happy together.  Good-bye Sirius, my love.  Good-bye, cruel world.  Andromeda McGee is gone forever now."  She chuckled quietly to herself.  It was eerie laughter that sent shivers down his spine.

The scene faded back to his quarters at Hogwarts as he pulled away from Andy's mind.  He saw her in a new light, stronger than he had thought her to be.  She would get through the induction with minimal problems as soon as she was trained in the protocol.  Her mind would protect her from everything else.

Andy could feel sharp bursts of pain slamming into her head every few seconds.  "You were right, this does hurt."

"I know, McGee," his voice was softer now, not purposely, but with the fresh empathy he had gained for her.  "I apologize, but it needed to be done.  You should be pleased to know that your shield is strong enough for our purposes.  It was a challenge to break down.  Now the only thing we have to do is work on protocol for the ceremonies."

"Not now I hope," she muttered through the throbbing.

"No, not now.  It is for another day.  Right now, the only way you will get rid of the pain is to sleep for a few hours until dinner."

Andy glanced around, grabbed a throw pillow resting on a nearby chair, and curled up on the couch.  Almost immediately, she was sleeping.

Snape wasn't sure that it was the best thing to let her sleep in his rooms, but figured that it would be hard enough to move her in the state she was in and even harder to explain if anyone say him moving her to her rooms.  Taking the blanket off the back of the couch, he covered her gently with it.  After what he had witnessed, she could sleep here as long as she wanted to.

{Author's Note:  Yes, I know it has been a very long time since I posted on this story.  I think it was August, to be exact.  I have been way to busy for my own good.  I started my senior year in high school taking two Advanced Placement courses in English and European History as well as two Freshman College course with Syracuse University in Calculus and Chemistry.  Marching band was over on October 26, with my band ranking 7th out of 7 band and 2.4 points between us and the first place band.  I tested for my Third Degree Black Belt on November 8, and passed.  In the mean time, I started with the fall play, had to drop it due to the conflicting schedule of a babysitting job that started without warning, and now work about ten to twelve hours a week baby-sitting a two year old girl.  Currently, I will be crewing the play instead.  Just to make things more interesting, my boyfriend and I celebrated a year together on November 1.  Needless to say, I have been incredibly busy! I do want to thank all of you for reading this after the long wait for me to start up writing again.  I hope to continue a bit more regularly now that things are calming down for a few weeks until January.

Angelkas:  Of course I plan to write the Induction!  That has been the high light of my thought process when I first came up with the plot.  It is even more sick and twisted now.  You shall how people can die from the torture.

Lily Skylo:  Thank you.  I think this answers how Andy takes things.  Will Sirius ever be informed of it?  Well…in a sort he will be, but other than that, I can't tell you; you're not a monk.  Ignore the monk thing, it's a bad joke.

Josie:  Yes, I'm still here, alive and kicking.

Anna Black:  Thanks for the Occulmency idea!

Peace, Love, and Cheese, Nataly Ravenlock}


	17. Empathy

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

Chapter 17 Empathy 

**Sometimes she was just an actress/ But you'll never really know/ A shadow moves across her face/ You cannot see her soul/ Unless she lets you/ See her soul "Silver Girl" Fleetwood Mac**

Andy woke up, feeling the pain subside for the first time in a few hours.  She yawned and stretched, blinking a few times to clear the sleep from her eyes.  She stared at the ceiling for a moment before realizing that these were not her normal quarters.  "What the hell?" she mumbled to no one in particular.

"Feeling any better, McGee?" a sharp, smooth voice clued her in to where she was as all the events of the earlier day rushed back at her.

"No one's attempting to smash my head in with a sledge hammer any more, if that's anything?" Andy rolled over to find Snape sitting in the same chair as before reading a large, unmarked tome.  She yawned again, sitting up.  "Well, is it?"

"For now, yes it is," Snape answered, staring at her.  He had thought about her a lot in the past few hours and what he had seen in her mind.  A new respect for her had appeared.  He could see what she had been through and only now had he finally realized how lucky he was to have her as a friend.  He wasn't sure if 'friend' was the correct word, but it was close enough.  She had saved him many times and had given him more support than anyone else he could remember.  After a few seconds of silence, he whispered, "Thank you, McGee."

"For what?"

He looked deep into her eyes.  "For everything that you have ever helped me with, all the times you saved my life, for choosing to put up with me after all that's happened, and for all the times I didn't thank you."

Andy grinned.  "It's okay, Sev.  Just don't tell anyone else what you saw.  I don't want to be ragged on too much."

Her smile was contagious and for the first time, Snape almost felt happy.  If it wasn't for the Induction in a few days time, he might have been completely content. But he wasn't.  "I won't, that I promise you."  He wasn't sure what he wanted to do at the moment.  Something in him told him to take advantage of the situation, go sit next to her, put your arm around her, hug her, kiss her, do something!  NO!  He couldn't!  She was not his!  But Sirius Black is dead or at least missing, the voice told him.  She needs someone, especially with what is going to happen to her.  Not now!  He had already let himself get too attached to her for his own good and being more so wouldn't help him, not with the Induction so close.  The Induction ruined everything.

"You okay, Sev?"

He broke out of his internal argument.  "I am perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?  You looked sick for a second there."

Of course, he would look sick!  With his body wanting him to one thing and his mind another, what else would happen?  "I was just worried about the Induction and if we can prepare you in time."

Andy stood up, walking over to him.  She paused for a second and made up her mind.  His mind may have conflicting beliefs, but hers functioned perfectly fine on one track.  Looping a hand around the back of his neck, she slid into his lap.  "I'm strong; I'll be fine.  Worrying will do you no good."

"You aren't helping very much, McGee."  Snape wasn't sure what she was doing.  All he knew was that he had a willing Andy on his lap, which was what part of him wanted, but the other part protested.  He put his arms around her, just to steady her, he told himself.

Andy nuzzled her head into his shoulder, just below his ear.  "Sure I am.  I needed a hug and I figured this was the only way I would get one."

"You could ask someone else."

"I want you, Sev.  You're the only one that I can trust any more.  All my other friends are dead or gone forever and you are the only one left that I can still trust."

Snape was confused for the moment.  What could she want with a scarred, beaten Slytherin who spent years killing people for no good reasons?  So he asked her, "How can you trust me, McGee?  After all that I have done, all the people I massacred, betrayed, murdered in cold blood?"

"That was then, this is now.  What happened happened.  That is the past and now is the present in which we live.  The past is over and done with.  Who you were is different from who you are.  That's why I trust you."  Her voice tickled his ear.  Andy inhaled his scent, finding it pleasant like a potions laboratory mixed with musk and herbs.  

Snape could see her logic, but he didn't see exactly why she chose to trust him and not someone else say like Flitwick, or Hooch, or McGonagall, or any of the other professors.  He sighed, feeling her warmth near him.  It was a feeling he hadn't experienced very often.  Women never liked him much.  With a temper like his and looks to match, it wasn't much of a surprise.  His hair was a disaster from the constant stay in laboratories and Voldemort's curses didn't help much either.  He had a nose only a bird could love.  His skin was striped with scars.  Why couldn't she see this?  Before he could think any more, he felt a light pressure on his neck, sending chills down to his toes.  A kiss?  She kissed him?

"McGee, don't.  You don't know what you are getting into."

Andy didn't answer, but kissed his neck a little stronger with an added nip towards the end.

"McGee, no!"

Andy shifted her head away from his neck.  Snape relaxed slightly, hoping she listened.  Unfortunately for him, she didn't.  Andy looked him deep in his dark eyes and kissed him firmly on the lips.  It was a simple kiss, long, but simple, no tongue, just lips.  Snape protested for the first few seconds before giving in.  What was there to lose?  

As she broke away, a smile brushed her face.  "There.  Was that so hard?  All I wanted was a little kiss.  I've dreamed about it, you know, kissing you.  Thought about it too.  Always wanted to do it, but never had the chance to.  I figured you might be open to it after being in mind and seeing everything, but obviously, I see that's not the case."  She moved to get off his lap.

Snape's arms held her firm.  "No, McGee," his voice was gentler now as he held her tight.  "That's not it.  I don't want anything to happen to us.  Our friendship, or relationship if that's how you want to think of it, is built on complete trust.  After the Induction, I don't know if even what we have will be possible and I don't want to break what we have."

"Alright, Sev, I'll respect you for that.  No more, then."  She laid her head on his shoulder.  She had failed at her task.  He had done so much for her.  She wanted to help him in return, show him that he really was cared for and that there were some people who were not afraid of him.

His hold hadn't loosened.  Snape found that he enjoyed holding her close, especially now that he knew she was willing to be close to him.  He knew he shouldn't get involved with anyone, even if it was Andy McGee, who wouldn't purposely hurt him or betray him and obviously cared a lot for him even though he was a Death Eater.

"We can't continue like this, McGee," he spoke softly.

"I know.  But for now, it is perfectly fine," she took a deep breath, finding the words she wanted to say.  "I need you, Sev.  You are the only one here who understands what I have to go through.  You are the only one who knows what is going on and what is going to happen.  I need that.  Anyone else would just brush it off, or more likely shun me for saying that I am going to become a Death Eater.  You're the only one who knows about it, other than Dumbledore, but he's too good to understand completely.  He doesn't understand the suffering that I have been through.  You do, all too well.  That's why I need you.  I need you to hold me and tell me that we can get through this because there's no one else who can do that.  Sirius wouldn't understand; he'd exile me away from him as soon as he heard Death Eater.  Remus would try to help, but it would not work because he doesn't know!  Neither of them can help now any way; they're gone forever!  I need you!  I need you, Sev, but only if you are willing."

Snape gaped openly; glad she could not see his face.  Sarcastic remarks and insults bubbled in his mind but sharp retorts would only break her further and they did not need that right now.  He needed her to be strong.  If she needed him for strength, then he would accept it willingly.  She had helped him before and now it was his turn to repay her.  He didn't know what to say or how to respond. 

"It's okay if you don't want to, I understand."

"No, McGee," he changed his mind, "Andy, that's not it.  I will give you whatever support you need.  I got you into this mess; I am going to help you through it."

"Thank you, Sev.  I really appreciate it," she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him strongly.

He almost wished that she would stop, but not quite.  It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the attention he was getting, but more of he wasn't used to having it.  It wasn't something that usually occurred so he was still wary of letting himself succumb to her.  He rubbed her gently on her back.  She was still just a little thing, but he didn't mind.

A clock chimed striking six o'clock.  "We ought to go, people will wonder if we're missing for dinner."

Andy nodded in agreement.  "Not that it would be bad wondering.  I mean, I haven't been to the Hall in a few days and you're a natural recluse.  It wouldn't bring too much difficult."

"We should go," Snape stood up, with Andy still in his arms.  "If I put you down, will you promise to behave?"

"No."

"Andromeda McGee, you are something else."

"I know."  She pecked him gently on the cheek and slid out of his arms.  "Thanks, Sev," there was a pause.  "When are we going to discuss protocol?"

"When will you be free?"

"I'm leaving on Christmas Eve for my brother's house for dinner.  Christmas day is definitely out of it.  I still have some shopping to do, which was going to be done tomorrow or the next day.  Other than that, I think we should get everything done as soon as possible, in case his plans change, but that's my opinion."

"Are you free tonight?" Snape wasn't sure if tonight would be the best, but he, too, had other plans for the week.  She was right that Lord Voldemort's plan could change whenever they wanted to, so it would be for the best.

"After dinner?"

"Yes."

"I suppose so," she smiled. "Come, my dear Slytherin, food will do good to distract us from the misery of this situation."

The two walked to the Great Hall in silence, more of not sure what should be said than having nothing to say.  There was a large amount of things that both wanted to talk about but none could be said at the moment, not with some many open, unprotected spaces around them and some many people who could eavesdrop and hear the wrong thing.  The only seats at the high table were at opposite ends, so Andy took one next to Professor Sprout and Snape sat by McGonagall. 

Andy couldn't believe what she had just done.  Why had she been so willing?  What had made her want to be in his arms, to be loved by him?  What had possessed her to think that he would return what she gave to him?  She was lonely, that had to be her reason.  Sev was the only person who she could trust any more and she had told him that.  The rest of the staff had no clue as to what was going on with her life.  Sure, they knew that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were gone for a while, but it didn't hit them as hard as it hit her.  They were her two saviors, the two who could keep her happy, but now they were gone and all she was left with was Severus Snape.

She didn't know why she trusted Snape.  Maybe it was because she had saved him and he had saved her.  There was the whole thing about a wizard's bond, but that couldn't be the whole reason.  He wasn't the nicest person to be with; his temper was legendary.  He spoke mostly with sarcasm and insults and treated people like they were low life scum.  He'd done that to her before, but sometimes he was different.  Sometimes, he seemed to understand that she needed to be held or comforted.  That's why she did it, because she knew that he would understand her and that he wouldn't mind all too much.

It wasn't like he was the best man for the job, but at the moment he was stuck with it.  Andy didn't even know why she liked him so much.  He wasn't the best looking guy; in fact some would consider him downright homely and it was the truth.  He was scarred, his nose was more of a beak than anything else, and his hair looked like it hadn't been washed in months.  That was wrong; Andy had touched it and found that it was actually not greasy, but soft to touch.  It was his eyes that got her.  They were so deep black, a dark flawless obsidian, a moonless night.  They were his best feature and so easy to get lost in.  She loved his eyes.  That was probably why she fell for him.

Snape was having the same questioning problems that Andy was fighting.  She had to have had a reason to do that to him, but it didn't want to come clear to him.  She was gorgeous in her own right and he was an ugly duckling.  There was no reason that he could think of that would have made her remotely attracted to him, but somehow she seemed more content using him as a chair and kissing him or all things.  He hadn't been kissed like that in years!  No one in their right minds kissed Severus Snape!  And she obviously enjoyed, by the look in her eyes afterward!  It was not right!

Normally, under the circumstances that a willing, relatively good-looking member of the female gender climbed into his lap of her own accord and proceeded to kiss him, he would have no problems with it just because it doesn't happen very often.  But if that person happened to be someone who was very close to getting inducted into Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters and someone who might have to curse or torture for the ceremony, getting emotionally attached to the person was the last thing that he wanted to do.

Yes, he did like Andy enough.  She was one of the few women who did not shy away from his contact and on top of that she was bloody brilliant.  He always admired smart women and hated those who chose to flaunt themselves as brainless twits.  She had never done that.  She was relatively good looking in his opinion, not drop dead gorgeous, but definitely not ugly.  She was of a slender build, not overly curvy, but enough to show that she was obviously a woman.  Her face was what he liked the most.  Her features were well-defined, but not overly so that they were too sharp.  She had a pert nose like a small button, much prettier than his beak like one.  Her lips seemed to be always on the verge of smiling and her chocolate colored eyes sparkled with mysteriousness.  He couldn't chance falling for her.  It was too risky.

Not that he would mind doing so.  He hadn't been loved in a long time and sometimes it was a nice thing to have.  Maybe after the Induction, he would see if she was still willing and maybe then he could get things to work out, but not with everything going on now.  It wouldn't work out without someone getting hurt.

People began to filter away for the night and some of the professors had already left.  Snape caught Andy's eye before leaving his seat and motioned for her to come.  She met up with him at the doors of the Great Hall and followed him silently back to his rooms.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Andy spoke up.  "I apologize for earlier, Sev.  I was being extremely inappropriate and you don't deserve to be treated like that."

Snape chose not to speak until they were back in his private quarters, "There is no need to apologize for that, McGee.  I think we both needed someone at that point."  He couldn't believe what he was saying.  He shouldn't have said that!  Bad Snape, bad!

She tilted her head up to him.  "Okay.  So what's this protocol thing, then?"

He was glad that she dropped the subject.  "There are a few basic things that you need to remember when dealing with Lord Voldemort.  First, when you first are introduced to him, kneel and bow your head.  Never make eye contact with him.  Secondly, always address him as Master or Lord Voldemort, never by anything else and especially not Tom.  Thirdly, do not speak until you are spoken to.  If he chooses to curse you, it is perfectly acceptable to show weakness and scream, but it is preferable to bear the pain silently to show your strength.  Do no try to dodge the curse either.  He does not appreciate that.  Any questions?"

"He's going to curse me?"

"Well, not necessarily him, but you have a very good chance of being cursed before the end of the ceremony by someone."

Andy thought for a moment, "You mean any of the Death Eaters might curse me?"

"Unfortunately, yes, any of those who are ordered to curse you will have to do so."

She paused, licking her lips, "Does that mean you too?"

"Yes, McGee, I may have to."

{Author's Note:  That was interesting.  I don't know where that chapter came from, but that's how it ended up being written.  I know it is different from what I normally write, actually a whole lot different.  Wow, I scare myself sometimes.  Oh, well.  That's my problem.  One more chapter and then the Induction!  Yay!

Sunkyssed: Thanks!

Vincelia Valentine:  See, I update soon!  I play clarinet in band and have played that for the past two years.  I also spent one year in pit percussion on the bells.  I know the feeling with new instructors.  My junior year our director retired so the drill guy took over and everything was lax so we only got fifth.  Before the original director retired, we got 2nd and should have won since the 1st place band even said that we should have won.  This year the drill guy got moved to Georgia and we got a whole brand new staff that made a lot of people unhappy which was bad.  I will miss it though.  I was only in for three years, because we switched districts before my freshman year so I wasn't in it then.

Anna Black:  Yes, that is creepy.  I really liked your drawing of Andy.  Do you mind if I put a link to the picture of her in the next chapter so other people can see her?

Sora:  I can't spell; it is as simple as that.  Without spell check I am lost.  My friends pick on me about it all the time especially since I write so much, I should be able to, but I still have problems doing so.  So however the word is spelled whether it is Occulmency or Occlumency, I will figure it out whenever I find my OotP book.  Thank you for bringing it up though, I will see what I can do about it.


	18. Reunion

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

This chapter is dedicated to my cat, Cinnamon, who decided my lap was a good place to lay every time I sat down to type this.

**Chapter 18**

Reunion 

_**Someday, somehow I'm gonna make it alright,/ But not right now/ I know you're wondering when/ And I hope that since we're here anyway,/ We can end it, saying/ Things we've always needed to say, / So we can end up staying/ Now the story's played out like this/ Just like a paperback novel/ Let's rewrite an ending that fits/ Instead of a Hollywood horror . "Someday" Nickelback**  
  
_

Christmas Eve came sooner than expected and Andy found herself in front of a familiar house holding a bag of gifts.  She hadn't known what to give her brother or his family who she basically didn't know.  Then again, they hadn't known that she existed until a few weeks ago either.  She knocked politely on the door.

A young girl with two dark braids opened it a few moments later with a puzzled look on her face.  "Who are you?"

Andy wasn't sure what to say.  "I'm, um, well, your father's expecting me."

"Daddy!  There's a strange lady at the door!" the girl called to her father.

Ben had appeared just after his daughter had let Andy in.  "Andromeda!  You did decide to come after all!  Merry Christmas!"  He engulfed her in a huge bear hug.

"Merry Christmas to you too!  You don't change, do you Ben?"

"Never have and never will."

"Daddy?" Ben's daughter tugged at his sweater.  "Who's the lady?"

"This, my dear, is a very good friend of mine who I have not seen in years, Andromeda," he turned to Andy, "Or do still go by Andy?"  They had decided before that it would be easier to explain that she was an old friend instead of an aunt.  Relations were always more difficult to explain when they had been missing for years.

"Andy, please.  Andromeda's quite a mouthful."

"Then this is Andy."

The girl's face scrunched in puzzlement.  "She's never been here before."

"I know, honey," Ben explained patiently, "She just got back from traveling and I asked her to stop by for dinner."

"What do you do?" his daughter asked politely with the innocent curiosity of little children.

"Alexis, that's enough, go help your mother."  Alexis pouted, but did as her father told her to.

Andy chuckled.  "Its okay, Ben, I'm used to it by now.  Having to teach eleven through eighteen year olds does that to you."

He shrugged, "I was afraid she would get a bit too inquisitive.  Kids are like that."

"I know, and how many do you have?"

"Five," he answered with a roguish grin.  "That was Alexis; she just turned nine in November.  I wouldn't be surprised if she took after you, though none of the others have."

"Others?"

"I'll introduce you to them.  Here, let me take your coat."

Ben led Andy through the familiar halls of her childhood home.  It was much like she remembered but with subtle differences, like the new paintings on the walls and different colored carpets.  A group of three boys were crowded around a television playing video games.  In actuality the two older ones were playing while the youngest watched, enthralled by the explosions on the screen. 

"How many times have I told you not to let Noah watch you playing games?" Ben spoke sharply.

"Sorry, Dad.  It does keep him quiet.  He likes to watch, don't you, kiddo?" One of the older boys ruffled Noah's hair.  Noah nodded energetically.

"Fine.  Andy, these are my sons, Elliot, Wesley, and Noah.  You three, this is Andy, an old friend of mine."  He wanted to say sister, but knew it just wouldn't work out that way.  Maybe later, in a few years, he would be able to understand all that had happened to her, but until then, 'friend' would work as an explanation.

"Okay, nice to meet you, lady," said Noah, looking up then going back to watching his brothers play their game.  The older two mumbled greetings as well.

"This way," Ben led Andy into the kitchen where his wife and eldest daughter were preparing the meal.  "This is my wife, Gabrielle and my eldest daughter, Brianna.  You already met Alexis.  You guys remember me telling you about Andy, right?"

Gabrielle was the only other one who knew that Andy was actually Ben's younger sister and not simply a friend.  "Hello, Andy, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."  Gabrielle McGee was a woman of medium height with auburn hair that fell in stylish waves to just above her shoulders.  She shook her hand warmly.  A timer dinged, signaling that something was done.  "Brianna, check the biscuits.  Take them out if they're done."

"Yes, mum."  Brianna was almost a perfect copy of her mother with longer hair that fell to the middle of her back.  "They're all done."

"Dinner should be ready shortly, dear, if you would like to sit down at the table.  Ben, get the rest of the herd ready to eat."

"Kids!  Dinner's ready!" Ben bellowed.

"Benjamin! How many times do I have to tell you not to yell in the house?" Gabrielle admonished her husband shaking the spatula she was holding at him.

"Sorry, dear."

"Men," Gabrielle grumbled under her breath.  "You're lucky, Andy, men are always more trouble than they are worth.  Never get involved permanently with any of them; that is my advice to you."

"I'm not that bad!" Ben protested.

"No, you aren't, dear.  I could have done a whole lot worse.  Instead I picked you."  Gabrielle smiled at her husband as she handed him a tray with a turkey on it.  "Here, take this."

A large table in the dining room was set with a red table cloth and the fine china that was saved for only special, holiday occasions.  The five children were seated around the sides, leaving seats for Ben and Gabrielle at one end and Andy at the other.

Dinner was an ornate meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and cranberry sauce served with a nice wine and sparkling grape juice for the children.  Andy almost wished she was back at Hogwarts and didn't have to spend time with the awkwardness here.  The children could care less about her existence.  Ben was happy that she was here, not having been able to spend time with her since she had reappeared, but he was the only one.  She wasn't so certain about his wife, who took it well enough but not as well as it could have been.

The dessert of homemade Christmas cookies moved the group out to the living room.  Andy brought out the bag of gifts she had brought with her.  They were not much, but they were at least something.  She had created enchanted snow-globes for each of them, each with a different scene inside.  At the moment they were frozen so that it wouldn't frighten the kids too much.  She had created a gnome for Noah, a unicorn for Alexis, a dragon for Wesley, a different dragon for Elliot, and a pixie for Brianna.  The one for both Gabrielle and Ben was a faery couple sitting on a few wild flowers.  The models inside were life-like and with a simple word could be enchanted to move around and make noises or even speak if they could in reality.  Andy was rather proud of them.

Noah was utterly thrilled his and spent the first few minutes enthralled by being able to flip it upside down to see the snow fall on top of his gnome with the red cone hat.  He tottered off to the kitchen, following his mother as she cleaned up the table.  The globe slipped out of his hands as he tripped on a chair sticking out.  The little boy tumbled down to the floor, snow globe slipping out of his hand and shattering on the floor.  He began to bawl loudly.

"What is it, Noah?" his mother asked her crying son.

He pointed to the broken snow globe.  The gnome was standing in the middle of the pile of glass, shaking his fist at the young boy and mumbling in a strange tongue.

"Oh dear," Gabrielle wasn't sure what to make of it.  "It'll be okay."  She picked him up. 

Ben had entered the kitchen as he heard his son's tantrum.  He, too, noticed the gnome on the floor.  "Oh, boy.  Andy, I suggest you get in here now."

"Hmm?" Andy asked as she walked into the room.

"Look at this."

Andy looked down at the floor, seeing the gnome and the shards of glass.  "That's not good.  I thought I had made it unbreakable.  Oh, well must have forgotten to do this one.  I can fix it in a jiffy."

"Andy, no," Ben commanded her.  "That's not it.  The thing moves."

"Yes, it is supposed to do that.  I put them in stasis until I could explain everything to everyone else who doesn't know about me.  It must have come undone when it broke."

"What are you talking about?" Gabrielle asked confused as to what they were talking about.

"He never told you, did he?"

Gabrielle shook her head.  "He only told me that you were his sister and he hadn't talked to you in years.  There was something about your parents disowned you and you went away for a while because of that, refusing to speak to any of the family."

"That's relatively accurate, but he never told you exactly why our parents disowned me, did he?"

"No, Andy, I chose not to," Ben answered for her.

"Well, that makes things more difficult now doesn't it?" Andy asked rhetorically.

Noah noticed the angry gnome on the floor.  He stared at it, amused that it moved.  Maybe it would play with him.  "Mommy, it moves."

"Yes, Noah, it moves."

"Can I play with it, Mommy?"

"No.  We don't know what it is.  It's probably dangerous."

"Actually," Andy spoke up.  "It's only a figurine that got animated.  It can't do too much harm.  Thankfully, he didn't break any of the dragon ones; those would be I would worry about if they broke."

"Will someone just explain this to me?" Gabrielle was getting frustrating.

Andy shared a look with her brother, biting her lower lip.  Neither of them knew how the rest of the family would take it.  "Um, do you want the nice easy version, or the whole thing?"

"I just want answers."

"Fine," Andy pause.  "I guess the easiest way to explain it is that I'm a witch."

"You're a what?"  Gabrielle was not sure that she had heard her correctly.

"A witch, a person who can do magic.  Like this."  Andy pulled out her wand from a sheath in her sleeve.  "_Reparo_."  The shattered remains of the snow globe fused back together, encasing the fuming gnome back inside, compete with all the snow and liquid.  She gave it to Ben.

Gabrielle was at a loss for words.  That couldn't happen under normal circumstances, yet she had seen it with her own eyes.  "Did you know about this, Benjamin?"

"Yes.  Andy's my sister, how wouldn't I know?"

"And you let her do this?"

"Gabrielle, this is why my parents disowned her.  This is why I cared for her until she was able to go off on her own.  This is why I have had no contact with her for the past seventeen years.  Of course I let her.  She's a fully trained witch."

Gabrielle was still uncertain about the whole thing.  "And what does a 'witch' do for a living?  Sit around a cast unless spells and bribe money off of normal people?"

Andy took a deep breath.  She would keep her temper for Ben's sake.  "No, it's not like any of that.  The Magic world is completely different from the world you know of.  We have our own government, our own jobs, and our own stores.  I am employed by a school and teach eleven to eighteen year olds magic."

"That can't be too difficult.  You'd only need one person to do that, wouldn't you?" 

"No, not at all.  Hogwarts teaches all sorts of subjects, like charms, and history, and herbology, and self-defense and many more." 

"Right," Gabrielle did not like what she was hearing one bit.  It couldn't be true.  No wonder Ben hadn't spoken to this crazy lady in so long.  She wouldn't have either, if she had been in his shoes.  "And what do you teach?"

"Potions," Andy spoke brightly.  "This will be my second year teaching it.  It's sort of like your Chemistry except with magic involved."

"I can't take this.  Just get out of my house.  I can see why Ben hasn't spoken to you in years.  You're an abomination to society."

"Fine, I'll go.  We'll just see how you take when your daughter gets her letter to Hogwarts in two years," she turned to Ben.  "I've been watching her all evening and I think you were right.  She does take after me.  I think she may have the talent.  We shall see.  Good-by, brother.  Thank you for dinner."  Andy gave her brother a hug, grabbed her coat from a rack by the door, and left.

Ben stared after her.  That had gone worse than expected.  He hadn't thought Gabrielle would react that way.  It was over now and he had a feeling that Andy would not be welcome in the house unless Gabrielle knew nothing about the visit.  "You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did.  That woman is an abomination.  What she did is completely impossible.  I will not allow her around my children."

"I asked you politely to give my sister a chance and when she tried to be helpful, you slammed her down.  That was uncalled for."

"Daddy," Noah spoke up.  "It's moving again." He pointed to the globe Ben was still holding.

"See?" Gabrielle questioned, "All she's good for is parlor tricks."

"You don't know my sister.  Andy is incredibly intelligent and is very good at what she does.  The position she has right now is the equivalent to a college professor.  She's at the top of her field."

"I don't care.  I will not allow her in this house ever again."

As soon as Andy had gotten out the door, she Apparated back to Hogsmeade and walked down the long, dark path to Hogwarts.  At least they accepted her here.  

{Author's Note:  Eventually I will learn not to simply sit down and start typing things.  Until then, chapters like this will continue appearing.  Perfect timing, too.  Christmas Eve and that's when this chapter takes place.  Ha!  I rock!  Merry Christmas to all!  Maybe I get the next one done by New Year's to continue this whole posting on when it takes place.  We'll see about it.

Josie: I know what I'm doing.  I have to bring them together in order to cause more pain if they get ripped apart.

Sunkyssed: Thanks!

Sora:  At least some one liked the interaction between them!

Peace, Love, and Christmas Cookies, Nataly Ravenlock}


	19. Until Death Do Us Part

{Disclaimer:  The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers.  I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee and Wyvern the cat.}

**Chapter 19**

**Until Death Do Us Part**

_What I see in the night_

_What I feel in your heart_

_All your dreams, all your lies_

_Can you tell them apart?_

_See the hands on the clock_

_Are you watching them turn?_

_For your candle is quite low_

_We've been watching it burn_

_Do you lie here awake,_

_As the shadows look on?_

_Should they cry for your sake?_

_Should you sleep in their arms?_

_For the shadows see all_

_And they rarely forget_

_Every dream that you've had_

_Every act you regret_

_"Midnight"from the musical Beethoven's Last Night by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra_

Andy awoke from a short afternoon nap feeling groggy and unfocused.  She supposed it was almost time to get ready, but was unwilling to do so.  Instead, she reached over to the folded parchment seated on her nightstand.  She turned it over in her hands fingering the green and silver wax seal.  It was in the shape on the letter "M" intertwined with two serpents.  Malfoy…She opened the folded paper, reading it again as she had done numerous times before.

"Dear Andromeda," it began.  Andy wanted to know when Lucius had decided that they were on a first name basis.

"You are cordially invited to a New Year's Celebration at the Malfoy Estate.  The festivities will commerce promptly at 8 o'clock p.m. on December 31.  Please RSVP by owl no later than December 30."  It was signed in the fancy scrawl of Lucius Malfoy himself.

Naturally, she had no other choice than to RSVP and accept the invitation.  She had asked Severus about the so-called "celebration" and he had explained that it was simply a cover up for the Induction.  He had received a similar invitation, which made Andy glad that she wouldn't have to enter the serpent's lair completely alone.  Thank gods for that small gift.

Andy placed the invitation back on her nightstand and reluctantly got out from under the covers.  Checking her watch, she noticed that she had a little over three hours to ready.  Knowing that she wouldn't need all of the time to get ready, even though it was important to look good enough to make a decent impression on her host and Lord Voldemort for that matter.  She decided that the best thing to do first would be to take a long, hot shower.  It would not only clean her up, but wake her up as well, which was something she really needed at the moment.

She was correct in that aspect at least.  The shower did help her wake up and focus, but it did nothing to quell the nervousness rising inside her.  She donned a burgundy bath terry cloth bathrobe with fuzzy slippers and made a mug of mint tea in hopes it would grant her some essence of calmness.

Sitting in an overstuffed chair with a large mug of tea, Andy wondered about the night's upcoming events.  It wasn't something she looked forward to doing, but she knew it was the only thing she could do under the circumstances.  She had never dreamed of herself being in this position to become servant to a Dark Lord she did not want to serve.  It couldn't be helped.  It had to happen.  Anything that she could have done to get out of this would only make her dead.  This option at least prolonged her life for a bit longer.

There was nothing that she could have done differently.  Sure, she could have not felt bad for Severus after he had been injured, which would have made it so she wouldn't have been in the hospital room with him when the port key transported the two of them into Voldemort's palace and the only thing she could do to keep them both alive was to brew the Merlin's Potion, even though it was faulty.  That was how Lord Voldemort came to be convinced that he was invincible and that she was now on his side.

This, of course, she could all blame on Severus Snape who had saved her from Azkaban in the first place, bringing the wizard's debt upon her even though he did help her regain her memories and her life.  So therefore, Andy reasoned as she took a sip of her tea, this whole problem could be rooted back to Severus for rescuing her in the first place.  That meant that he was the root of all her problems.  That made her feel a little better, but not all that much.

Finishing her tea and not feeling much better than before, Andy reluctantly approached her wardrobe, not wanting to put on what was hanging inside.  It would only bring her closer to her destruction.  She opened the doors any way, knowing she couldn't stop the inevitable from occurring.  Severus had told her that the party was a formal ordeal, as in black ties and long dresses.

The dress Andy had purchased was a simple-cut backless, black halter with gold trim and a neckline cut a little too low for her tastes.  Severus had explained it would get her on Malfoy's good side if she showed a bit of skin.  Not that she had much to show off in the first place.  She snorted that that idea.  She had always been small built with just enough curves to show that she was a woman.  All through her childhood, she had been jealous of the girls who had curvy hips or chests that guys admired.  She didn't care any more.  It wasn't like she had men chasing her by the dozen.  She didn't need them anyway, not during times like these.  Right now she just needed a better life.

Andy slid the dress on over the necessary under garments.  Looking in the mirror, she decided that it didn't look all that bad.  She added a pair of matching gold sandals to complete the outfit.  Simply stunning, she thought to herself, though the hair could use a bit of work.

Her hair had grown out since she had last cut it, but it was still short and spiky, the way it had always been, since her release.  Ben had told her that she looked like a shorter version of Meg Ryan with her hair cut like that.  Andy disagreed, except for the hair part.  She twisted her bangs back, pinning them with red rose buds.  It looked better than before; she had to admit that much.  She added a spritz of her favorite perfume, a delicate hint of lavender flowers.  She added a touch of smoky eye shadow, mascara, rouge, and lipstick.  Grabbing the matching cloak, Andy made her way to Snape's rooms and knocked at the door.  He was her only way to get to the party.

Snape heard the insistent knocking at his door just as he was knotting his tie.  "It should be open," he snapped, frustrated at his uncooperative neckpiece that did not want to tie correctly.  He heard the thick door open and close as some one entered the room.  With a final tug, he gave up on his tie and he turned to meet his guest.

The sight he beheld amazed him, though he chose not to show it.  Andromeda had some how become a completely stunning creature.  Delicate heels made tall enough to be more noticeable and the dress showed enough cleavage to make a man look twice.  "Impressive, McGee," he kept his reaction to himself.  "You clean up better than I would have thought."

Andy smiled and Snape could have melted there and then.  His training as a Death Eater was the only thing that prevented him from doing so.  "You aren't so bad yourself, Sev, though the tie needs a bit of work."  With gentle hands she unknotted the tie and retied it so it lay straight and flat against his chest.  "There, all spiffy."  She gave him a once over glance.  He wore a black tux with a deep emerald shirt and the uncooperative black tie that she had tamed.  His normally loose hair was neatly pulled back at the nape of his neck.

"Here," he pulled a small box from his pocket and gave it to her.  "This was supposed to be Christmas gift, but I didn't have the chance to give it to you properly."

Andy opened it, finding a gold chain with a ruby pendant.  "It's gorgeous!"

"It was my mother's," Severus explained.  "After she died, all of her possessions became mine.  I wanted you to have this.  There is a protection spell on it that will lessen the effects of some of the curses."  He clasped it around her neck, noticing that it matched her outfit perfectly.

"Thank you," she whispered, softly caressing the cold stone.  She thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.  Andy had been depressed when she had given Severus a nice silver pocket watch with a serpent on the front of it, but this definitely more than made up for it.  The room fell silent for a moment as they both collected their thoughts.

"All ready to go?" he asked, not wanting to bring her to this fate, but not wanting to stay alone with her so close much longer.

"As ready as I shall ever be," her wide grin had morphed to a dejected countenance.  "I don't know if I can do this, Sev.  I really don't."

Severus placed a hand on her bare shoulder.  "You've been through Azkaban, McGee.  This can't be much worse than that."

"Yes, it can," her voice was a little bit above a whisper.  "I know the people who are going to hurt me."

Snape didn't know how to respond.  It was the truth.  She knew him and she knew a few other Death Eaters by acquaintance.  It was different to be tortured by those you know than those you didn't.  He pulled out his invitation, turning it in his fingers meditatively.  "You will get through it.  Alive.  Trust me, McGee.  If everything else fails, I will get you out of there alive."

"You promise?" she looked him straight in the eye.  He noticed tears were starting to well up.

"Yes, I promise."  Andy wrapped her arms around his waist, getting her last hug of comfort before she would face one of her worst fears.  Snape gently hugged her back, knowing that she would need all the support she could get tonight.  "Alright, Andy," he figured that now would be a better time than never to actually use her given name.  "It is time go.  To be early is to be on time."

"Okay," she sounded dazed, but that was to be expected.

Snape pulled a small silver serpent from his robes, similar to port key that had brought them Lord Voldemort months ago.  Andy touched it and felt the familiar sensation of a hook grabbing her bellybutton and pulling her toward the destination of the Malfoy Estate.

The Estate was a gigantic, ornate building, more of a castle than anything else.  She had expected as much.  Severus offered his arm to her and she took it, needing all the support she could get.  He knocked on the door.

It opened on its own will and Snape lead her inside.  Andy had to do all she could to stop from gawking at all the gold and antiques.  She knew the Malfoys were a prestigious Pureblood family, willing to flaunt all that they could.  Taking notice of all their possessions would only show her weakness.  She had to act as if she was used to all the glitz.

Lucius Malfoy appeared, dressed in formal black.  "Ah, Severus, Andromeda, nice of you to make it."  He kissed Andy formally on the back of the hand.  "The house elves will take your cloaks.  Come.  The celebration is just through the foyer."

After depositing their over garments to the waiting servants, Andy and Severus followed Malfoy into what could only be called a Grand Ballroom.  It was at least as large as the Great Hall in Hogwarts, decorated with fantastic tapestries and portraits.  Candelabras stood tall and gilded at intervals around the walls.  A giant fireplace was roaring with flames.  Three chandeliers hung from the ceiling, giving enough light to make a pleasant, if not mysterious atmosphere.  Andy was thoroughly impressed even though it would not be correct etiquette to show it.

Malfoy had wandered off to speak with other guests, leaving Andy and Severus alone.  Andy busied herself by admiring the décor.  "We should mingle with the other guests," Snape spoke quietly, "both of us.  It is better for our images."

"Even though I don't know any of these people?"

"That is what I am here for.  Some of these people are less harmful than others, so I will introduce you to them."  Snape offered his arm to her again and the two set off into the crowd.

"Hello, Severus," a deep voice offered greeting to their left.  "I see you finally found a lady friend."

Snape turned toward the man, glaring slightly at him.  He had been the brunt of many jokes due to his confirmed bachelorhood.  "Andromeda, this is Ignatius Bennett.  Ignatius, this is Andromeda McGee,"

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Madame," he kissed her hand.  It seemed to her that was the form of greeting used to here for women at least.  "I'm glad some one finally changed Severus's mind about staying single.  Took him long enough, it did."

Andy glanced at Snape, seeing how he took it.  He kept a carefully blank expression.  Neither knew how to take it.  Snape thought about it for a moment and decided to use Ignatius to his advantage.

Bennett continued, "Well, you folks, take care, I think I need a drink."  He left them alone as he wandered in search on the punch bowl.

"Sev, what do we do now?"

The Slytherin smirked.  He had a plan.  "It is quite simple, Andromeda.  If he wants to think that we a couple, then we let him.  In the long run, it will keep the other Death Eaters from getting their hands on you if they know I already have a claim on you."

"So you're asking me out, again?"  She remembered last year when they had plotted against Sirius by hooking up, if only for a few days.

"If that's how you want to take it, then yes, I am, for tonight at least."

Andy smiled at him.  "Yes, Sev, I would love to go out with you, even if it is only for a night."

Snape felt his heart flutter.  He knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do under the circumstance, but if the other Death Eaters knew that he had laid a claim to her, they would keeps their hands off.  If he didn't have a claim on her, who knew what some of them would do her.  But with her being his, he could control her fate, even if it meant cursing her or worse.  Hopefully she would be able to forgive him for what ever he would be forced to do to her.

Andy wasn't sure what to think.  She agreed with him that it would be for her protection, but actually dating Severus Snape was something she never thought of.  She had always been with Sirius until he disappeared and everything went wrong.  Sev was different.  He wasn't as caring or lovable, but he could be sweet when he put his mind to it.  She liked the idea.

A quartet in the corner began to play.  The music drifted over the conversations, cutting through the words to make the melody heard.  "Shall we?" Andy gazed up into his dark eyes.

"Shall we what?"

"Dance.  You used to dance."

"Andy, that was a long time ago.  I can't now."

"Come on, Sev, please?  Other couples are dancing."

She was right.  He had been decent on the dance floor.  He really didn't want to but supposed it would further their plot against the other Death Eaters.  "Fine, but only once."  He offered his hand to her and they maneuvered out to the dance floor.

Severus took her into his arms, feeling how light she was.  He hadn't danced with a woman in longer than he could remember.  Andy was a pleasure to have in his arms, light on her feet and following his every move.  He felt her head lay on his chest, making his heart stir with emotions that had never been there before.  It wasn't love.  No, he wouldn't call it that, but he did care for her.

Andy was thrilled that he had agreed to dance with her.  She remembered him being a fabulous dancer.  The picture that Ginny had found in the album of the two of them dancing filled her memory.  Tonight more memories would be made, both good and terrible.

{Author's Note:  The phrase "To be early is to be on time" is part of my Drama Director's favorite speech which goes as follows: "To be early is to be on time.  To be on time is to be late.  To be late is unacceptable."  I know I said the Induction was going to be in this chapter, but some how I started writing this and it got up nearly 3000 words so I figured that I would split that chapter and write the next one as the Induction.  The first part of this chapter was written in a notebook listening to Linkin Park while I waiting for the two year old to wake up from her afternoon nap.  The last part of the chapter was done while listening to Beethoven's Last Night by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is an awesome CD.  Where else can you hear Beethoven and some Mozart on electric guitar?

Josie:  As soon as I figure out how to make living snow globes, you will be the first to get one.  And sometimes, I don't even know what I am doing with this story.  Take this chapter for example.

Sora:  It wasn't much shorter than usual.  I think all the dialogue made it seem that way.  I think Snape does cheer her up a little bit here.

Peace, Love, and Peanut-butter Chocolate Smidgens, Nataly Ravenlock}


	20. Evil Hath Its Ways

{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern the cat, and a few random Death Eaters.}

WARNING: This chapter contains very mature content and to say the least, is not extremely pleasant. Let this be a warning to you all. Also, for those of you have read my tale before, I edited a bit of the end of the original Chapter 20 to better fit with my ideas of the ending.

**Chapter 20**

**Evil Hath Its Ways**

_**"A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is until it's in hot water." Eleanor Roosevelt**_

As the clock struck midnight, Andy gasped in pain at the wand striking her left forearm. An incantation was shouted yet she could not fully discern the words. On her pale skin, a single line blossomed, tattooing a design that would stay with her until and most likely past her death. The line grew, tracing image that she already hated: a skull and a snake intertwined and never parting.

The skull only meant death, plain and simple. Given that it was a human skull, it meant the death of people. The people could be anyone. It could be her or her family, what was left of them, or other people she cared for, or even the deaths of people she never knew and would never meet. It would be death to the Muggles that Voldemort hated so much, even though he was half Muggle by birth. It reminded her of Hitler, killing off those who were not blonde-haired and blue-eyed, even though his own attributes were darker shades.

The snake had many meanings opposed to the simple skull. A serpent was cunning. In ancient Chinese, it symbolized patience. A snake would coil in the same position for hours on end and wait for an unsuspecting little beast to scamper by and SNAP! it was turned into dinner in the blink of an eye. For some reason, that meaning struck her as odd, but then again, Voldemort was never one to act hastily even though it may seem like he did. The snake was also the symbol of Slytherin, Voldemort's house and the house of many of his followers. The symbol almost made sense to her in a certain, disturbing way.

The meanings she found did nothing for her temperament. As the mark finished its final embellishments, the ceremony was complete and Andy McGee was officially a Death Eater. It was never meant to happen this way but it did.

"Rise and serve your master well, Andromeda McGee," Voldemort hissed. Andy pulled herself weakly off the floor, but by the time she was fully upright, Voldemort and his minions had already disappeared. She could feel the cool blackness wash over her as she collapse into a pile back on the cold stone floor.

*************************************************************

It had been after the luscious meal when she was brought down to Malfoy's dungeon. She hadn't eaten much. Nervousness had done its duty in quelling any hunger she might have had. Severus had sat next to her and had acted as if nothing was going to happen. It bothered her that he could be completely nonchalant with the whole ordeal, but there was nothing that she could do about that.

The first room they led her into was a dormitory sparsely decorated with only a wardrobe, a bed, a mirror, a wash stand, and another door on the opposite wall. Lucius Malfoy had told her to enter and she did so meekly, knowing better than to protest. A few moments later, a woman clad completely in black with long pale hair came in. Andy recognized her vaguely as Lucius's wife, Narcissa Malfoy, and from her obvious involvement with the upcoming activities, probably a Death Eater as well.

Narcissa walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a long, sleeveless, black shift with a cord belt of the same color. "Strip completely out of your garments, including underclothing and change into these. When you are finished, exit through the door over there," she gestured to the door she did not enter from.

Andy waited until the door was firmly shut to discard her dress. Changing in front of a sneering Malfoy was not on the top of her list of things to accomplish tonight. Finding simpler, black undergarments, she exchanged them with her own and slid into the shift. With a deft hand, she knotted the belt around her waist. She took a deep breath and opened the door into the next room.

She could see no visible light coming from anywhere in the next area. The door behind here creaked eerily closed and she was alone. Cautiously, Andy drew her wand.

"There is no need for that here. You will come to no harm unless you fail to answer my questions correctly," an androgynous voice spoke from near by.

She let her eyes adjust and located a robed figure a few feet away from her. There was probably a spell to disguise the voice, she figured. Her wand was tucked into her belt, far enough from her hand to show that she meant no direct harm, but close enough where she could grab it at a moment's notice.

"That's better. State your full name."

"Andromeda Josephine McGee."

"Date of birth?"

Andy thought for a moment. She hadn't really celebrated her birthday since before Azkaban. "June 23, 1961."

"Occupation?"

"Potions Mistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Schools attended?"

"Hogwarts, and I was apprenticed for a few months in the Ministry's Experimental Potions Department, but never finished."

"House at Hogwarts?"

"Gryffindor."

Andy heard the person snort in disgust. He, or she for that matter, had an obvious distaste of Gryffindors. "Do you come here of your own free will with no person or creature forcing you to do so?"

"Yes," it was true, she did choose this path.

"What are you motives for joining our league?"

Andy's eyes widened. She hadn't thought about that. Why did she choose to join the Death Eaters and not run away? Clearing her mind as Severus had taught her, she gave what she hoped was the best answer. "Seventeen years ago, Lord Voldemort asked if I would join his forces. I refused. By refusing someone as powerful as he, I was promptly Obliviated and sent to Azkaban. Thankfully, he had mercy and released the prisoners, including myself, a little over a year ago. After regaining my identity, I was soon called by Lord Voldemort to recreate the Merlin's Potion that I had brewed in my youth and did so willingly for him. I wished to prove my worthiness to him. I decided he was a much stronger force than I had realized before. The stronger force always wins at the end." She took a deep breath and hoped her reply would suffice.

The lights in the room grew brighter, but not intense enough to hurt her unadjusted eyes. A robed figured in a throne on the opposite wall. She hadn't noticed it through the gloom. The dark individual began to clap slowly. "Impressive, Miss McGee," he hissed. Andy drew a shape intake of breath. It was Lord Voldemort. She steeled herself for whatever he planned to do to her, but he only continued talking. "You finally realized that you were wrong not to join me when I first offered. But you were young and naïve and Azkaban certainly has a way of shaping priorities. What made you realize that I was right after all this time? Was it Dumbledore's righteousness that never got anything accomplished? Or was it the subtlety of my power seeping through the Wizarding world?"

"Both, sir, but partly neither as well, sir," Andy answered. "After spending a year at Hogwarts I came to realize that after all of Dumbledore's intelligence, he could never destroy you. He could never figure out when you would next attack or what your next move would be. At every turn, he under estimated your power. It made me realize that if I wanted to be on the winning side, I would have to serve you, not Dumbledore."

"Quite correct, Miss McGee, and he never will figure out my strategies until the very end. Since you did see the light of my ways, I will not punish you as I had originally intended."

"Thank you, sir."

"But since it did you longer than it should have," Lord Voldemort continued, "You will receive some punishment. _Crucio_!"

Andy fell to cold stone floor, writhing as bolts of pain coursed through her entire body. Every single nerve burned with fierce agony as if she was on fire with a thousand flames. Her bones felt crushed to every known limit that they could with stand and just when she thought that she could not stand it any longer, it stopped. She laid breathing heavily on the floor.

"I believe that should be sufficient for the time being unless you chose to commit other errors that displease me," the Dark Lord paused, watching Andy climb to her feet. He would have to remember that she was stronger than she looked. "Bring in the prisoners." A Death Eater guarding the door broke his statue-like stance and left the room.

Voldemort resumed his conversation with Andy. "Now Miss McGee, even though you claim to want to serve me willingly, I make certain that all of my soldiers will obey any order that I give them." The Death Eater reappeared with two bodies which he deposited near one wall. "If you do not obey my orders, you will die painfully. Is that understood?"

"Yes, my Lord," Andy stuck a glance at the two bodies. She could only imagine what he wanted her to do with them.

"We will make things a bit more interesting though. No need to have one of my newest members reported." He flicked his wand at Andy and she felt her shift grow into a full robe with a hood and mask to cover her face. Hardened boots appeared on her feet. "There. Now what I would like you to do is torture both of them. They are withholding certain information that I require. You may do what you wish with them as long as they are not dead before I find what I am searching for."

Andy approached the two bodies. "I assume their wands are already broken, sir?"

"Of course. It is standard procedure to either break or steal the wands of prisoners here."

She nudged the first one with the toe of her boot. Both men had burlap bags covering their faces. She nodded thoughtfully to herself. It was a good idea. She couldn't see them and they couldn't see her. She couldn't break down seeing who it was that she was tormenting. She took another deep breath and steeled herself. With a point of her wand, she revived the first prisoner. He moaned in pain. She looked over both men carefully before deciding on a course of action. With another flick of her wand, she lifted him and flung him against a blank wall. He cried out in pain but stuck there, suspended with no bonds save for Andy's magic. She cast another spell at him.

"I haven't heard any screaming yet."

"I realize that, sir. I'm setting it up to maximize the situation. I cast a spell on that one, making him to only be able to focus on the other prisoner. He will be able to see through the other's point of view and feel what he feels, though not quite as powerfully, sir."

"Continue, then." Voldemort was almost impressed at her intelligence, but not quite. He knew that many of his followers would have simply cast Crucio and stopped at that. This would be more interesting to watch at least.

Andy revived the second prisoner and promptly kicked him hard in the ribs. He groaned and lay still on the ground. "Get up and fight like a man," she hissed menacingly at him.

Mechanically, he stood up and waited. Andy stepped forward and punched him firmly in the stomach. He bent over with an "Oof!" She grabbed him by his hair and yanked his head upwards to get him to stand straight. Her next strike fell to the pressure point where the collar bone meets the neck. He whimpered as pain lanced through the area and placed a hand where it hurt. She grabbed his arm roughly, pulling it back and forcing him down with a wrist lock. A well placed palm shattered his elbow. He screamed at the torturing agony and his scream was echoed by his companion.

Voldemort laughed, "Interesting choice of torture, but effective nonetheless. You may continue. I don't believe he will talk yet."

Neither prisoner made any move to answer except for whimpers of agony.

Andy eyed her prisoner critically, debating what to use next. She noticed his unbroken arm supporting him, hand splayed out on the floor. Taking initiative, she ground the heel of her heavy boots into it; crushing the bones together and feeling them snap like twigs under her weight. The two men screamed together.

"Now, are you ready to talk yet?" Voldemort's voice was deep and menacing.

"Never," the man Andy was in the process of beating rasped.

"It is only your loss."

Andy used her foot to turn him on his back. He had one broken elbow and a crushed hand and wouldn't give in. Hmm, what to do next? With a quick motion of her foot, she brought it down on his shin, feeling it break into more pieces than it originally had. The man was past screaming. Instead, she could almost hear the tears streaming from his eyes. Breaking his bones was obviously not enough for him. A flick of her wand suspended him in the air in front of her.

The Death Eater guards in the room held ceremonial spears, giving Andy a brilliant idea. "May I?" she asked the closest one. He gave it to her willingly. She returned to the man suspended in the middle of the room and checked the sharpness of the blade. Obviously, the spears were still used for something, given the blade had a decent edge. She ran the tip across the prisoner's arm, seeing a line of blood well up. "Perfect." Using the sharp tip, she traced a line from his navel up to his throat.

"My Lord, do you have any alcohol?" Andy asked not pausing from her destruction of the prisoner's skin.

"Fetch two bottles of Ogden's Old Fire Whiskey," Voldemort ordered one of his minions. The underling returned a few moments later presenting the bottles to his master along with two snifters. Voldemort levitated a bottle to Andy. She sniffed at it, finding it rather potent and took a deep swig. She could feel it coursing through her veins and it gave her the calm she needed to resume her torture. She ripped off the remaining tatters of the prisoner's shirt and soaked a corner of it with the whiskey. Using an almost, but not quite gentle touch, she ran the cloth down the open wound.

The prisoner screamed hoarsely, louder than he had before. Seizing inspiration, Andy used the spear to cut off the remains of his pants. She cut a thin stripe from his navel downward toward his genitalia and stopped just above. "No! No! Not that! Anything but that!"

"Oh really?" Voldemort questioned cruelly. "So you will talk now, will you?"

"I will never tell you my secrets!"

"Pity, resume your work."

The spear crept further downward across certain regions that are incredibly receptive to pain. His shrieking was nearly deafening as Andy wrung the whiskey-soaked rag out over his nether regions.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! It's at Hogwarts! That's all I know! It's at Hogwarts!"

"Let him go," Voldemort ordered. "Now was that so difficult?" The Dark Lord glared at the trembling prisoner from his throne. "Cooperation will get you somewhere in life. Unfortunately for you, cooperation will only bring your death closer." The tortured man's shrieks had quieted to sobs of despair. On the far wall, the other man keened with anguish. Voldemort released the spell holding him up and let him drop to the ground into a wailing heap. A point of his wand stunned the unbroken man once more. "Take these two away. I shall decide what to do with them later."

Somewhere in the mansion, a clock began its strike of midnight. "Come here, McGee." Andy walked up to the throne of Lord Voldemort, feeling her legs shake with adrenaline. "Kneel." She dropped to her knees and felt Voldemort grab her left arm. His wand struck her forearm and she could feel it trace the lines of the skull and serpent permanently into her skin. "You have proved yourself worthy of serving me as a Death Eater. There are few who are truly up to this great task, but you have shown yourself to have skill, intelligence, and imagination, talents that will prosper under my lead. Rise and serve your master well, Andromeda McGee."

{Author's Note: That was honestly the most difficult chapter that I have ever written in my entire life. It's not getting proof read by me at the moment, because I honestly am too scared to read what I wrote. I blame this chapter on my SUPA Chemistry midterm exam.

Sora: I have probably explained that I have spelling difficulties, and decided that was how I wanted to spell it at the time. Yes, you are correct and thank you for catching it.

Anna: Thanks for reviewing! ::Hands over one large Moose Tracks sundae with dark chocolate, sprinkles, and a cherry on top::

{Peace, Love, and Vanilla Coke, Nataly Ravenlock}


	21. Remorse

{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights and owned by, but not limited to, Scholastic Books and Warner Brothers. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern the cat, and a few random Death Eaters.}

[_Quick Author's Note Before We Begin_: It has been roughly five years between the writing of this chapter and the previous one. I finally got motivated enough to finish the fic, as I kept getting random reviews telling me to do so. My writing style has probably changed a bit, and the characters might be slightly different though I tried hard to keep them as I had created them through _Second Chances_ and the first 20 chapters of _Into The Flames_. Thanks to those of you who have read and reviewed this story previously and I hope you all enjoy this chapter.]

**Chapter 21**

**Remorse**

_**It's crazy, I'm thinking, just knowing that the world is round. I'm here. I'm dancing on the ground. Am I right side up or upside down, and is this real, or am I dreaming? "Crush" Dave Matthews Band**_

How exactly she ended up seated on Snape's couch in her pajamas, wrapped up in a blanket, and holding a mug of peppermint tea, Andy was not quite certain, but she did at least know that was where she was, and that she was safe there. Everything that had transpired after meeting Voldemort was rather fuzzy, and she was quite content to keep it that way for the time being.

She glanced around the room, noticing the obvious lack of the apartment's owner and wondered briefly where he had gone. Setting her mug on the end table, Andy turned her attention to her left forearm. The tattoo was still there. It obviously was not a bad dream, as she had hoped. She traced the outlines gently with her finger. Ugly, hideous, disgusting; all it did was make her feel sick and nauseous. It was not something that she could wear proudly like so many people generally did with their tattoos. Even covering it up with a bandage or a long sleeved shirt would not hide how the mark made her feel. She felt like a traitor to herself.

Andy picked up her mug again, taking a sip of the calming beverage. As much as she loved peppermint tea, today it tasted like death. She sighed, unsure of what to do, not that there really was much that she could actually do.

It was all over now and there was nothing that she could do to change what had happened. She was officially a Death Eater. Only dying would remove her from the connection with Voldemort and only Voldemort's death would free her from the curse of being marked. All she could do was take things as they happened, act as she did before she was inducted, and live life the best she could without destroying any connections that she had made, both good and evil.

How did a Gryffindor end up as a Death Eater? Peter had turned to the Dark Side. He was weak though. He was attracted to the power. Maybe he was brave in being able to turn away from the people he had once considered friends, only to betray them all. She couldn't see any other way that he could have been in Gryffindor. Ambition was a Slytherin trait.

Andy consoled herself in that she wasn't truly a Death Eater. She was a good person, disguised as Death Eater so she wouldn't be killed before she was ready to leave this world. The mark didn't matter if she could keep her internal loyalties strong while acting like she was a member of the other side. It still meant that she was traitor.

She wished that everything could just be simple for once. All she wanted to do was live the rest of her days in peace, maybe experimenting with her potions, drinking tea, and petting her cat. That sounded downright pleasant right about now. Life was never as easy or as nice as she hoped it was. It seemed like she got the short end of the stick when whatever higher being was giving all the people of the world their lots in life. First there was the memory loss and Azkaban, then losing her best friends, and now becoming a Death Eater. Who knows what would happen next?

It didn't make to sense to her. Why did she get stuck with everything that had happened to her? What did she do to deserve all the bad things? Was it something she did in a previous life or was she just cursed to be miserably unlucky? Either way, Fate had to have some sort of grudge against her. All she had to do was find a way to survive. She was good at surviving. With everything that seemed to just happen, she had more practice with staying alive than any one person should have. This was just one more pothole in the road of life.

Andy stood up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders. It dragged on the floor as she wandered to the window. The glass was frosted over with the cold. She could barely see the icy lake and the pristine, snow covered grounds, shrouded in the dark, gloom of night, but lit slightly by the partial moon. It looked so peaceful, undisturbed by any human contact. She wished that her life was like that, but realized it would be a whole lot less interesting that way. What she would give to be completely free again. Somewhere behind her, she heard the door to the apartment open and shut.

Severus entered his rooms quietly, thinking that Andy would be sleeping off the night's revelries, but instead found her gazing out the window. He wasn't quite certain what to say to her. She had been through too much in the past evening that it would be difficult to broach conversation without knowing how she was coping. With Andy, he could never know if she was on the verge of an emotional breakdown or if she was going to take things well. He chose to stay silent and returned to his favorite chair to continue reading the tome that he had been working through earlier.

She stayed at the window a few more moments, before starting to pace restlessly around the room, too many tumultuous thoughts racing through her head to allow her to sit still.

"Sit down, McGee. Pacing is not going to help," Severus looked up from his book, glaring at her, and doing well to hide the pity and remorse that he felt. Women were notoriously difficult. He knew that she would start talking eventually. Everything would all come out then. He just had to be patient and wait for her to finally get to where she could at least ramble mindlessly for a bit.

Andy slumped back on the couch, deciding to fidget with the fringe on the blanket instead of wandering aimless around the room. She watched Snape as he returned to reading his book. Obviously, he was much less affected by the entire situation than she was. That did make sense to her, since it was her induction, and he had been a Death Eater for a long time before that night. "I just don't understand it, Sev," she finally said.

"What don't you understand, McGee?" He looked up from his tome once more, but did not close it fully yet.

"This whole mess. It's like if everything could go wrong, it already did. Voldemort, Azkaban, Sirius and Remus disappearing, and now I am a Death Eater. I'm not supposed to be a Death Eater."

Severus closed his book. This was bound to be more interesting than the newest potions book. "Do you really think that anyone is supposed to be a Death Eater?"

Andy furrowed her brow at him, confused by his question. "Well," she started hesitantly, "Yes. There generally has to be at least two sides to a conflict, if not more. So some people really are supposed to be on the bad side and some on the good. But I am not a bad person; I shouldn't be on the bad side."

"The question is, do the people who are Death Eaters actually consider themselves to be 'bad'?"

"Yes?" she answered hopefully.

"No, McGee, you are wrong."

"But they are evil people! They kill people for no reason, and hurt people, and torture people!"

"You are only partially correct; the Death Eaters do many things akin to what you said, but what you are not considering are their motivations behind those actions. Surprisingly, there are actually reasons behind some of the things that they do."

Andy cocked her head to one side like a befuddled puppy, contemplating what he had said. "You mean that the Death Eaters' actions can all be justified by what motivates them? It doesn't really seem like any motivation can justify killing another human being."

"And that is exactly why you were not in Slytherin," he spoke as if it were a bad thing.

"You mean I actually have moral values?" she shot back at him.

"I meant that your Gryffindor chivalry and stupidity get in the way of understanding how the actual world works."

"I will not have you insulting me after last night," Andy's voice turned to deadly steel. She may have disconnected herself from what had occurred, but it was still an open wound in her mind that would need time to heal.

Snape nodded almost imperceptibly. She seemed to have at least accepted that she could not change what had happened, but needed to work through why it had happened and how things would go on from there. That made the situation much easier. "I apologize," he paused before continuing. "Different people are motivated by different things. Some want power, others want prestige or wealth. Many are willing to go at great lengths to get to what they want. The Death Eaters, the ones who actually want to be Death Eaters, are motivated by what Lord Voldemort promises them. Can you understand that?"

Andy took a deep breath. It was starting to make a little more sense. "I think so." She looked at him curiously. "What made you join them?"

"I wanted power," he said simply. "I wanted the greatness that Voldemort promised. It felt like a good decision at the time, though I now regret it and have learned otherwise."

She agreed thoroughly, "I already regret it and it hasn't even been an entire day."

"Your reasons to join them were better than mine. Your life was at stake and you know which side you are actually on."

"I still feel like a traitor."

"That is a feeling that will never go away until this is over."

The pair lapsed into silence. Snape resumed his reading, assuming that the conversation would be over for a bit while Andy mulled over more of the previous night. He was waiting for the torture aspect to surface. At least she didn't have to murder anyone for her induction as many of the Death Eaters had been forced to do.

Andy took another sip of her tea. It no longer tasted like death, but it had gotten cold during her pacing and the conversation. She finished it off, noticing the horrible tattoo on her arm once more as she set the empty mug on the table. She studied it yet again, fully realizing the depths of what she had gone through to get it. Ignoring those thoughts in favor of more tea, she walked mindlessly to the kitchen to make a fresh pot of something decaffeinated, for neither had slept yet. Returning to the sitting room, she handed one mug to Severus and kept one for herself.

"I didn't kill anyone, did I, Sev?" she asked in a small voice. All the details of the revel blurred together to where she was not certain as to what exactly happened beyond the rush of adrenaline that kept her functioning through her task to torture the two men. The outcome and other events were not as clear.

Here we go, he thought to himself. He would not get any more reading done tonight. He shook his head, "No, you did not."

"That's good. At least they have the chance of still being alive," she took a sip of the tea. If she could force herself to be optimistic, maybe things will turn out better than expected. Sadly, being optimistic given the current situation was rather difficult. "Unless Voldemort will kill them any way."

"He might. He might not," Snape shrugged. "It depends on who they were and what purpose they served him."

"Do you know who they were?"

"Lord Voldemort does not share all information with his followers. They could have been anyone."

'They could have been people that I know."

"That is quite possible, though implausible."

"I still feel guilty for what I did to them," Andy stared remorsefully into her cup of tea. There were no answers there.

"If you are human, guilt is quite a normal emotion for what you had to do."

"Yeah….but they probably had family and friends and lives! Now they are locked away in cells, in agony because of me."

"One of them is completely whole. The other simply has many broken bones that are easily repairable and the cuts will heal, especially since they were well cleaned. They are at least better off than if one of the other Death Eaters had been forced to make them talk."

That was most likely true. The actual Death Eaters would have been less considerate about their treatment to the prisoners. At least Andy had the decency to clean the wounds with strong alcohol, no matter that it hurt to all hell in the process. Effective in torture, but almost a hidden sense of caring about what happened to the people even if she did not know who they were.

The room went silent again, as Andy contemplated more of the previous night. "Sirius and Remus would kill me if they knew I was a Death Eater."

"Most likely." Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were not subjects that Snape wanted to discuss. He resumed his reading, hoping to drown out whatever she had to say about his least favorite Gryffindors.

"Well, Sirius would try to kill me at least. Remus might listen,' she trailed off for a moment. "I miss them."

"I don't," Severus replied.

A tear rolled down Andy's cheek as she realized that the ache from losing her best friends was still there and just as strong as it had ever been. It hurt her to think that they might be gone for good, but she refused to accept that as a fact until more evidence was found. Soon, the single tear turned into full, blown out sobs, not only for Sirius and Remus, but for the people she tortured, and what she had to go through only a few hours earlier. She had tried to hold it in the best that she could, to be brave like the Gryffindor that she was, but there was only so much of a façade that she could hold together after having such a short time to mentally digest everything.

Snape watched her cry, waiting to see if she was going to stop the nonsense anytime soon. Deciding that she was set on having an outburst, he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and moved to sit next to her on the couch. Gently drying her tears with one corner, he offered the slightly soggy cloth to her. Andy took it gratefully, as she continued to bawl. She scooted closed to him, wanting the warmth of another human being as support. Severus put an awkward arm around her shoulders in comfort, and as she snuggled to his chest, her tears began to slow.

He knew that he shouldn't get this close to her, but seeing her cry after knowing what she had gone through made him feel the need to comfort her. What they had as a working relationship, almost friendly at times, was not something that he wanted to break, especially now that she was a Death Eater too. Close relationships only complicate things more. Part of him wanted to hold her and kiss her again and tell her that it would be alright, but that part was swiftly squashed by the more logical part of his brain.

Andy felt much better after allowing herself to cry and mourn. It was still a dull ache in her heart, but she could deal with what happened. It would take a long time to internalize that she was a Death Eater, but the shock from the revel and the importance of her position as a double agent kept her from emotionally overreacting. She wiped the remaining tears from her face. "Thanks, Sev."

"You are welcome, McGee."

"You can have your handkerchief back now," she offered it to him.

He glanced in slight disgust at the sodden, green square. "Keep it, at least until one of the House Elves cleans it."

She deposited it on the table, next to her tea mug. "May I stay here tonight?"

Severus was mildly confused as to why she would ever want to willingly stay in his rooms. The only times she had done so was when she couldn't remember who she was or when she had been badly injured. "Why would you want to stay with me? You have your own rooms."

Andy looked up at him from her comfortable spot on his chest. "Because I feel safe when I am with you."


End file.
